Mauricio Pochettino warns Chelsea they must ‘have the balls to win’ as he urges struggling Blues to develop a ruthless edge ahead of crucial week

Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino wants his team to develop a ruthless edge, especially against struggling teams. Or, as he put it, ‘To have the balls to win the ball.’

Pochettino was distressed at the ease with which Sheffield United won a series of challenges ahead of Oli McBurnie’s late equaliser in the 2-2 draw between the teams at Bramall Lane eight days ago.

And with Chelsea hosting another side battling the drop on Monday evening in Everton, Pochettino is looking for an improvement.

‘We have enough talent to win games,’ he said. ‘But the difficult thing in the Premier League is another phase, when you don’t have the ball. 

‘When you don’t have the ball, you need to have the balls. Understand? To have the balls to recover the ball.’

The Argentine was distressed at the ease with which Sheffield United won a series of challenges ahead of Oli McBurnie’s late equaliser

As a player at Newell’s Old Boys, Espanyol, Paris Saint-Germain and Argentina Pochettino had that desire to compete in bucket loads but he cannot be on the pitch to do it for his young players. 

‘I think it’s about training and trying to show the way we need to compete and then they need to deliver on the pitch,’ he said. 

‘It’s a process to be very competitive, very tough. I think the way we drew the game against Sheffield United, we need to all to feel very disappointed because did you see the McBurnie goal?

‘We lose one challenge. We lose the second, the third and the fourth and the fifth. And then we concede in the same action. And that was the last minute of the game. 

It’s about having the capacity to go there and to say, “We are a winner, I’m going to win this challenge, I’m going to be strong, I’m going to defend, I’m going to not concede a goal”. 

That is nothing more than mentality and all being together.’

Previous Chelsea teams have had strong personalities such as John Terry, Frank Lampard and many others but Pochettino struggled to name leaders in his youthful squad beyond injured captain Reece James and acting skipper Conor Gallagher.

Pochettino struggled to name leaders in his squad beyond Reece James and Conor Gallagher

‘We are in a project where 80, 90 per cent of the players are young and maybe need to grow all together. That’s why we are here, to help them in all this process’

Raheem Sterling is a doubt for tonight with a combination of illness and injury. Everton have been boosted by the return of Amadou Onana and Idrissa Gueye.