‘If you saw his face’… ESPN pundit noticed what Mauricio Pochettino did after Chelsea’s first goal last night

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Steve Nicol has shared what he noticed in the reaction of Mauricio Pochettino after Chelsea took the lead in their FA Cup fourth round replay against Aston Villa on Wednesday night.

You have to say that the Blues winning at Villa Park represents something of an upset, particularly when you consider the manner in which the result came.

Chelsea appeared to be in complete disarray heading into the replay. They had conceded eight goals in their previous two games and not won in three. Unsurprisingly, pressure appeared to be mounting on Mauricio Pochettino.

Mauricio Pochettino calm after Chelsea opener against Aston Villa

But goals from Conor Gallagher, Nicolas Jackson and Enzo Fernandez put the visitors 3-0 up inside 54 minutes at Villa Park. And it was only in stoppage-time that Villa managed to score a consolation through Moussa Diaby.

You would think that Pochettino felt an enormous sense of relief during the tie. But speaking to ESPN, Steve Nicol noticed that the Chelsea boss was able to keep a lid on his celebrations.

“Can I just say that if there’s one person who’s not going to be carried away with this, it’s going to be Pochettino. Listen, because if you saw his face after they took the lead, he wasn’t doing an Arteta, he wasn’t punching in the air. You can see in his face, he’s like, ‘okay this is good, but there’s a long, long way to go here’,” he said.

“So if there’s one man who’s not going to be carried away, it’s going to be Pochettino. He knows the problems he’s got and he knows one game doesn’t clear the whole thing.”

The potential is there

It definitely feels too soon to suggest that Chelsea have turned any sort of corner following that win. Ultimately, Villa have not been in the best form either of late. And the Blues have failed to capitalise on a bit of momentum on a couple of occasions already this season.

What is clear is that they have the players to be doing so much better than they currently are. And that should perhaps leave fans with some very cautious optimism.

If Pochettino can find a way to make things click, there is a lot of potential within the ranks – as their performance on Wednesday showed.