Chelsea come into Monday night’s game knowing that a lot is on the line.
It’s not a cup final or a match which decides our final league position, but it does feel like this cluster of games following the EFL Cup final are providing something of a referendum on Mauricio Pochettino’s future.
There was chanting after the Brentford game last week that made it pretty clear that the away fans have seen enough, and that’s only going to get worse if we don’t beat Newcastle on Monday.
Some fans are convinced that Pochettino has lost the fans, and that may well be the case. But fans can always be won back with good results. We’ve seen it happen plenty of times.
What is vital for Pochettino is that he doesn’t lose the dressing room. We’ve seen even more times how fatal that is. For now the group seem to really like him and believe in him. As long as that’s the case, he can win games. As long as he can win games, he can win the fans back.
