MAURICIO Pochettino has explained why Enzo Fernandez has had surgery now rather than at the end of the season – as the Chelsea boss welcomed back Cole Palmer to face Aston Villa on Saturday.
The Blues’ record signing Fernandez has had an operation on his groin and will be unavailable for Chelsea’s last six Premier League games.
“The moment he felt the pain and the limitation because of the problem, the most important thing is to fix the situation and fix the problem for him, because if he doesn’t feel well and he cannot perform because of the situation, it’s not good for him, for the team, for the club,” Pochettino said. “As soon as possible, fix the situation, move on and recover from the situation.”
It has been a testing week for Pochettino, after the side were knocked out of the FA Cup by Manchester City in the semi-final at the weekend and were hammered 5-0 by Arsenal on Monday.
“We think we are responsible to motivate players – why? It’s difficult to accept. When you play for Chelsea, the motivation is there. if you don’t have the motivation, it is difficult,” Pochettino said. “I don’t believe that is the problem, the motivation. The problem is to have the capacity to perform. We cannot give them the excuse to not perform and not to be focussed but at the same time, we are people, we are not machines. The players need to be focused. There’s six games left to play, its important for me, its important for them.”
“We talk about being together and having a big squad, trying to be together. it’s another thing we have to deal with. we need to be positive. The only way to move forward is to be positive, never give up, we are pushing them and trying to get the best in the period we have.”
Pochettino admitted he hasn’t been speaking directly to Chelsea’s owners recently. He said: “To be honest, in the last few months, we didn’t [exchange] messages, we communicated via the sporting director. Nothing’s changed, we are not changing. My views and my feelings are not changing, even if, now in the last few weeks, we are not crossing texts [messages].”
Chelsea are six points behind Manchester United in sixth with a game in hand, and face a Villa side in the last Champions League spot.
“We were talking a lot, today we had a meeting. We tried to realise how we need to behave when the game is tough, when the demands are so high,” Pochettino said. “We need to try and be more strong and to trust in the way that we play, in our philosophy, in the way we prepare the games.
“We need to be positive and we need to be strong and believe tomorrow we can have a good game, good attitude, good approach. We are going to compete again with another team, fighting for the top. We need to think we are Chelsea and respect ourselves.”
Chelsea’s top-scorer this season Palmer missed the Gunners defeat through injury.
Pochettino said: “Yes, Cole was training well in the last few days. We assume he is going to be ready for tomorrow, be part of the squad.”
