Reece James started this afternoon's contest at Goodison Park but had to be replaced in the 27th minute by Levi Colwill.

Robert Sanchez, meanwhile, sustained a knock early into the second period and was eventually replaced by Djordje Petrovic, who was introduced for his Chelsea debut following his summer move from New England Revolution, at the same time as Marc Cucurella made way for Ian Maatsen

'Reece felt something in his hamstring. For sure he’s injured, but we don’t know how serious it is,' said Pochettino, before discussing why our captain's absence was such a big blow for the Blues.

'Of course for us he is an important player, one of the best full-backs in the world. It is really disappointing because after 15 or 20 minutes we were playing well and I think this type of circumstance makes us change, because of course Malo Gusto is recovering from his injury.

'We hadn’t given away many chances and then you need to move things to make some changes. Even when Reece went off the team was pushing and playing well.

'But we are disappointed because when you believe you can build something and a player like him who should be really important for us can’t help the team. We go back and assess again in the next few days what is going on with his hamstring.'

Pochettino also revealed why the Spanish duo Sanchez and Cucurella had to leave the pitch in the second half.

'Robert Sanchez suffered a problem at Manchester United, it was an issue with his knee. He felt something during the second half, that is why he asked for the change. We must hope it is not a big issue.

'That is the same for Marc Cucurella, who twisted his ankle. We hope that these issues are not big. These are the circumstances we have been dealing with since the start and it is too much for a young team that needs to have all the elements together if we want to build something solid.'