MAURICIO Pochettino believes the way Noni Madueke and Nicolas Jackson combined in the 5-0 routing of West Ham United on Sunday is an example of how the players are capable of learning from their mistakes as the Blues close in on a European place.
Madueke set up Jackson for the fourth three minutes into the second half against David Moyes’s overwhelmed Hammers.
Cole Palmer, Conor Gallagher and Madueke had Chelsea 3-0 up at the break before Jackson struck twice in the second half.
Madueke and Jackson were involved in an embarrassing scuffle over who should take a penalty in the 6-0 win against Everton last month.
But the pair were outstanding at Stamford Bridge to help the Blues go seventh, two points off Newcastle United in sixth.
“The assist for Noni to Jackson, that showed we learn, that we are smart,” Pochettino said. “The situation with the penalty against Everton, we received so much criticism, but a young team always needs to make mistakes. Always you need to feel this situation to improve.
“Today was a great action from Noni to see how the group has started to believe, how they have started to feel between them. It is always a process that takes time. It can take one month, six months or one year but the most important thing is they have started to set the principles, started to live like a group of players to create all the links to compete. I am so pleased with that.
“We are part of this process, to help them to grow, to be more mature and keep improving in every aspect. It is a massive step but it is the step we wanted to reach. Now it is to evolve in other aspects and the possibility to go with tactical evolutions and we can improve from there but without principles, it is impossible to evolve in other aspects.”
Since they lost 4-1 at Liverpool and 4-2 at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers two months ago, Chelsea have been beaten only once in twelve Premier League games.
Pochettino believes it is more the process of evolution rather than one particular thing that changed to spark the run.
“Who knows about football, they know the process to build a team is the most difficult thing because you need to have the knowledge and the capacity to emphasise with every single player,” Pochettino said. “They need to feel the confidence, they need to trust in us, the coaching staff and we need to create this bond together.
“Then you need to start to identify the players in different aspects, what they need in order to perform and show their quality. This process will always take time but more so with this circumstances we have had since the beginning of the season.
“It was never perfect to have all of the players at the same time, at the same level, competing and trying to improve quicker than the reality was. Then to work with the expectation. The expectation from the beginning, you need to compete in the Premier League with a team that are preparing to come here and kill you.
“The expectation is impossible to fight. Then you need to defend yourself, afterwards you need to explain. But who knows a little bit about football, when the team is young, you need to find the confidence and that is the most difficult thing.
“I am so happy because we are so close to being in that position. After [the win against] Tottenham I told you that the way we competed is fantastic and then to keep this momentum. I think this team is growing so much, very fast now because that is the minimum standard we need if we want to compete in this league.
“The maturity of Noni, not to be selfish and give the assist. This type of thing, when they start to appear, it is a very positive thing. It was tough to arrive here but now it is like everything is going fast and it is going to be fun because we have quality.”
