Chelsea had begun this year in improving form, especially on home soil, where the 0-0 draw in the first match against Aston Villa came amidst four consecutive wins there in the Premier League and a run of 10 matches unbeaten at the Bridge in all competitions.

However back-to-back defeats, away at Liverpool and home to Wolverhampton Wanderers, mean it will not just be a case of asking for more of the same against Villa from his players when the two sides meet again in Birmingham.

‘It’s true that we played well in the game here at Stamford Bridge,' said Pochettino. 'After that, there have been different circumstances – and we will have one day fewer to prepare the game, as they played on Saturday and we played on Sunday.

‘So, the circumstances we arrive to the game in are completely different, but that is football. We cannot change the past, only we can affect the future. We have talked to the players today about being ready to compete tomorrow. We are going to pay attention to situations that happened in the last two games for them and for us.

'We need to improve and we will assess our players. Tomorrow I will decide the team because it’s important to assess how the players are recovering and, normally, we will do some changes tomorrow.’

Pochettino also reflected on the second of those two defeats, to Wolves at the weekend. Although he has had time to reflect, he remains unhappy with his team's performance, but is keen to keep his eye on the bigger picture rather than change his view of the side's progress based on one bad week.

'I was very disappointed because the way that we lost the game, the way that we performed, wasn’t the plan or the way that we wanted to compete. We need to keep going because we cannot lose the focus only because of two defeats, when 10 days before we were saying after Aston Villa we deserved to win and were competing really well.

'So of course we are disappointed but knowing that in football this type of thing happens, and more in a club like Chelsea now where we are doing things that are different to the past. To be consistent is the most difficult thing now.'

Our head coach also reiterated his faith in this group of players and believes even these tough moments will help make them stronger in the future.

‘In this type of moment – living in a situation that is not nice – we can learn. It’s a good opportunity to lean. I told the players today in the meeting, I trust in them more than ever, and I’m going to support them more than ever.

'I need to reflect in every single action my trust and we really trust the players that we have. We are going to face this moment knowing we can bounce back and start to win games.’