Pochettino happy patience paid off as Chelsea beat Fulham.
Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino described Monday night’s win at Fulham as a “short step” in the right direction.
The Argentine has endured a difficult start to life at Stamford Bridge but was encouraged by the manner of his team’s 2-0 triumph at Craven Cottage, which came courtesy of first-half goals from Mykhailo Mudryk and Armando Broja.
Pochettino said: “It’s a massive job; it’s step-by-step, very short steps. Sometimes, people don’t have patience, but for us, it’s about having it. Even when we weren’t winning.
“It’s important for us to build our confidence and trust in ourselves.
“The performance was very good. I’m so happy for the players, and in the end, we got what we deserved.”
Pochettino was particularly pleased for Mudryk, who grabbed his first goal for the Blues following his £89million move from Shakhtar Donetsk before having to come off at half-time due to a thigh strain.
He added: “It’s about maturity, adaptation and we need to understand young people as they need time to settle.
“It’s a massive change to come here, and when you arrive in a team, it’s not easy to settle because, being honest, too many young players arrive to a team that is not solid. It’s not the cherry on the cake.
“They need to add something to the team to add something important. It is to trust these guys, these young, talented players.”
Meanwhile, the home fans saw their team go back-to-back games without scoring a goal in what Fulham boss Marco Silva labelled as a “sloppy” and “disappointing” performance.
He said: “Our first half was not aggressive enough on and off the ball. We were sloppy in some moments.
“We were too passive the way we reacted to the cross from [Levi] Colwill (for the first goal), and then after that, we were punished by another mistake from ourselves, 30 seconds later.
“It is clear at this level, and against these types of teams, we cannot make the mistakes we made.
“They [Chelsea] were a lot more confident. Our second half was better, but we didn’t score our chances.”
