As Chelsea gets ready for its third-round match against Preston today, manager Mauricio Pochettino has urged the inconsistent team to use the FA Cup as a path into Europe.
Pochettino’s team is currently 11 points off of fifth place in the Premier League and will have a difficult time getting into the Champions League or Europa League for the upcoming season.
The Argentine gaffer is aware that Chelsea might benefit greatly from the FA Cup after a difficult first half of the season.
An FA Cup victory in May would guarantee them a spot in the Europa League, the former PSG manager admitted before Championship outfit Preston’s visit to Stamford Bridge.
Also, if they win the League Cup, they’ll want to guarantee a backup position in the Europa Conference League.
Starting on Tuesday and running through January 23, Pochettino’s team will play Middlesbrough in a two-leg League Cup semi-final.
We can win the FA Cup, of course,” Pochettino declared yesterday. We should aim to compete well in the FA Cup and the Carabao (League) Cup.
However, we must gradually build up to our run, with Saturday being the first stage. Since we are not in Europe, this rivalry is quite significant to us.
“We need to develop and get better as a Premier League team if we hope to play in Europe the following season. We can do that with the FA Cup or the League Cup.
Pochettino stated there won’t be any major changes made to the Chelsea squad that defeated Luton 3-2 in their most recent Premier League match, with a lengthy FA Cup run in mind.
Given that Nicolas Jackson of Senegal had left for the Africa Cup of Nations and Christopher Nkunku was only fit enough to be a bench warmer, he made hints about Armando Broja, the striker, perhaps starting.
We will approach it as though it were a Premier League match. We will respect Preston simply because it’s an FA Cup team and a Championship team, he declared.
“It will be possible for Armando to play. Christopher, though, will not begin. He experienced a few problems during the week.
