Ahead of their Premier League clash vs Manchester City, Chelsea FC manager, Mauricio Pochettino has rejected the underdog tag as he believes his boys have the right character and personality to face the Champions.
City will welcome Chelsea FC to the Etihad Stadium on Sunday, November 12 with kickoff fixed for 4pm.
In his pre-match comments, Pochettino said: “I think Chelsea never has the feeling of being the underdog. The feeling always is you are Chelsea.
” When you are Chelsea it is impossible to feel any different, the history is there. We cannot go and say we are the victim of the day on Sunday. We need to go and try to be protagonists with our personality, with our character.
“We went to Tottenham on Monday and finished the game 4-1 and won the game. That showed we have the character and the talent to compete and to fight with the best clubs in England. Now it is about bringing that confidence that for sure will help us to be more competitive.”
Pochettino will hope the positive feeling from the London derby win over Tottenham Hotspurs on Monday will spur his Blues army to a superb performance at the Etihad Stadium.
He said odf the approach to secure victory over his former employers: “That type of game, it’s about the tactics, the form, the approach of the game, how you prepare the game, about many things, and also it’s about controlling the emotions.
” One thing I need to say that my players managed really well was control of the emotion.
” A lot of that is down to the players. For the coach it’s always difficult to control the emotion on the pitch from the outside.
” I’ve learned that it’s really important for the players, how they stay calm in tough moments, to force the other team to make the mistakes and then to win the game.
“When we conceded the first goal it was a big hit for us, we were in shock a little bit and provided them with too many opportunities to play and create chances. After this moment we started to control the game. We then played very well and we created chances, we forced them into making mistakes and I think we deserved to win.” Pochettino said.
City are heavily backed to win this game but will be wary of a Chelsea team that despite their struggles have managed to trouble teams at the top end of the table.
Arsenal managed to escape defeat in 2-2 draw while Spurs fell flat 1-4 to Pochettino’s men.
