We’re about to kick off against Everton, and we’ve just got Mauricio Pochettino’s final thoughts before the game.
The Chelsea coach focused on what why he thought this was going to be a “good game”, and insisted (as coaches always do) that this opposition nis far stronger than what you’d think if you just went by their league position.
“The most important now is how we are going to approach the game and compete today. We have dropped four points against Burnley and Sheffield United and if we want to be in a different position we need to win,” the manager admitted.
“Everton are doing really well, maybe that’s not reflected in the table, but they are a very competitive team. Tonight is a good game to be competitive against a good team,” the coach concluded.
We’re a little worried Everton might be too competitive for us. We want a nice easy win to set us up for this weekend’s FA Cup semi final. This game will probably be the opposite of that.
The key to a win
For us, the key to winning this will probably be at set pieces. It’s our weak point and Everton’s strong point. They will have worked on little else other than their defensive shape and their attacking set pieces, knowing that a combination of those two things, executed well, has been enough to earn many teams with far less talent than them a point or three against us this season.
As for Chelsea’s efforts on those fronts, we’ve seen little progress since August, so forgive us for not getting our hopes up that things might have changed since last weekend. The return of Malo Gusto and selection of an extra attacking player in the formation should help us going forward, but it’s hardly going to improve us defensively or at set pieces.
