CHELSEA boss Mauricio Pochettino reckons domestic cups have an added importance this season because of the absence of European football.
The Blues failed to make any of the continental competitions for the first time since 2016 following last year’s disappointing 12th placed finish in the Premier League.
There was no FA or Carabao Cup success either, although Pochettino’s side still have both competitions open to them as potential routes back to Europe this time around.
Preston visit Stamford Bridge tomorrow in the FA Cup and next week Chelsea take on Middlesbrough in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final.
And with the Blues currently undergoing another inconsistent campaign in the league, the manager knows just how important the knockout contests are as a route to European qualification.
Poch said: “The Carabao Cup and the FA Cup are two competitions that we need to try to go far in.
“But before that we need to build a run step by step and the first step is tomorrow.
“Of course it’s a really important competition for us because we are not involved in European competition, and in the Premier League we are in a position where we need to grow and improve a lot if we want to play in Europe next season.
“But through the FA Cup, or the Carabao Cup, we can achieve that.”
He added: “We are still in all three competitions we started the season in and we want to be in all three until the end. We are winners, we want to win.
“We need to work more and more, it’s never enough.
“It’s really important to go through and be in the next round of the competition, but first we need to compete well and be better and deserve to go through.”
With a midweek trip to Boro coming up, the temptation might well be for Poch to rest some of his players against Preston.
The boss revealed some fringe squad members will get the chance to impress, although there won’t be wholesale alterations to the starting XI.
Pochettino explained: “It is a good opportunity because different competitions allow us to maybe use some different players in the team and see how they behave and how they perform.
“The FA Cup is an important competition for us.
“Tomorrow is really important, like the Carabao Cup semi-final against Middlesbrough is going to be, and then the Premier League game against Fulham.RESS CONFERENCE ????️
“It’s so important in the way that we are building this team and the possibility to provide the team and players a good experience competing at a high level at Stamford Bridge.”
He added: “It’s an important game for us.
“There will not be too many changes.
“We are playing with the circumstances but the team’s not going to change too much.
“You will see maybe one or two players who are maybe not normally in the starting XI, but because of the circumstances we need to prevent and anticipate problems. We take it like a Premier League game.
“We have full respect for Preston and tomorrow you will see we are going to put in place a starting XI we hope is guaranteed to perform.”
