MAURICIO Pochettino is optimistic Chelsea fans will cheer the team on when Aston Villa visit Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
Last weekend’s frustrating 0-0 draw at Bournemouth produced booing from some sections of the travelling contingent on the south coast after what has been a fairly lacklustre start to the campaign under new boss Poch.
And although the Argentine understands their disappointment at the Cherries result, he wants the supporters to stick with his injury-hit side against Unai Emery’s Villa.
Pochettino said: “I really believe that they are going to be behind us.
“For sure it is normal when you don’t win all are disappointed and like I said in my press conference after it is normal that they show their feelings and emotions.
“You cannot be happy after a draw in Bournemouth, even for us and for the players.“But we need to understand our circumstance.
“I’m not going to say they need to understand our circumstances because fans are fans and they want to win always but for sure we are going to feel the support, they are going to be behind the team.“The players need the support because they need to perform and with our people behind them they going to respond better if we don’t have this energy from the crowd.”
Chelsea’s failure to qualify for European competition has given Pochettino and his coaching staff a full uninterrupted week with the players on the training sound, whereas Villa have to recover from yesterday’s 3-2 defeat at Legia Warsaw.Poch accepts the absence of European football is tough for supporters to take having become accustomed to midweek encounters against continental opposition.
However, he does feel there are some benefits in the short-term.
The Blues boss said: “Yes, because I think for us it has allowed us to recover players from injuries and they were out on the international break.
“For us it has been good to have time to work. It was a very good week.
“We worked really, really hard with the players that we have and then time to recover players.
“If you are involved in competitions like European competitions it is difficult.
“Of course for the fans it is difficult because normally Chelsea is a club that is involved in European competition but at the moment because of the circumstances we are in we are not.
“I think we need to take advantage of the situation.”
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