Chelsea owner Todd Boehly has backed manager Mauricio Pochettino amid speculation around his future, saying he has been impressed by the team’s upturn in form and “beautiful football.”
Chelsea followed their 2-0 win over Tottenham last Thursday with a resounding 5-0 triumph over West Ham on Sunday to remain in contention for European football next season.
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Pochettino said after the West Ham win that his team had taken a “massive step” in their development and Boehly agreed in comments made at a Sportico conference reported on by The Athletic.
“We’ve seen the last two and a half games, at least in the second half at Aston Villa [2-2 draw] and Tottenham and West Ham where we played just beautiful football,” Boehly said.
“It was so fluid, it was exactly the way we drew it up, when we came out of the back, built up and moved up the pitch, [it was] very organised and the number of shots we had on board. In those two and a half games, you could really start to see what we were working on coming together.
“Even the commentary has changed over the last two and a half games. I’ve never seen anything change so quickly.”
Boehly was not asked explicitly about Pochettino, whose future at the club has been in question. The Argentinian coach, who signed a two-year contract last summer with a club option for an extra year, recently told reporters that he was not the person to ask about his future and called for the “stupid rumours” to stop.
“You need to ask the club if they want me to keep going or not,” he said.
Chelsea endured a difficult first half of the season but have only lost one of their last 12 Premier League matches and are seventh in the standings, two points adrift of Newcastle United with three games remaining in the domestic season.
Pochettino guided Chelsea to the League Cup final in February, which they lost 1-0 in extra time to Liverpool, and also to the semifinals of the FA Cup last month, where Manchester City beat them 1-0.