Mauricio Pochettino is confident that Chelsea have improved from their loss to Liverpool last month as the teams face off in the Carabao Cup final.
Chelsea were beaten 4-1 at Liverpool on January 31 in the Premier League, but have shown improvement in recent fixtures with back-to-back wins at Aston Villa and Crystal Palace, and a spirited draw at Manchester City.
Pochettino said Chelsea have taken confidence from those recent results as the west Londoners look to secure the first silverware of the season at Wembley.
“It’s true this is different. It’s never the same approach playing in the Premier League and in the final and in a neutral place like Wembley is different,” Pochettino said at his pre-match press conference.
“You always learn from the games you play, too many things. Of course we arrive in this game with different circumstances and now it is difficult to compare and say that it will have influence on the games that we played in the past.
“What you learn is Liverpool are a competitive team. They can play well, so well, not so well, not so good. But they are always competitive and we need to match that.
“We need to manage moments during the games and I think in the last few weeks we learn a lot. We are in a good moment, arrive in a good condition and I think the games against Crystal Palace, Aston Villa and Manchester City provided the team with confidence and trust.
“The team starts to be awake in the competition. It’s a click to change that we are missing in the early part of the competition.”
Victory for Chelsea would be Pochettino’s first silverware success in English football and the Argentine said his team will ‘fight’ for the trophy this weekend.
“It is good you say ‘in England’ because I have won other titles as a coach! I think it means a lot for us, the coaching staff to have the opportunity to arrive in the final and to challenge a team like Liverpool to win our first title here.
“I think it’s a dream for us, the coaching staff. Of course it’s a possibility. We have 90 minutes to achieve that and the team are going to fight. The team is ready. We are going to be very competitive. It’s an amazing chance for us.”
