Mauricio Pochettino delivers message of defiance to Chelsea fans after further booing at Bournemouth

Chelsea lost Moises Caicedo, Noni Madueke and Marc Cucurella to injury and illness before a nervy 0-0 draw at the Vitality Stadium on Sunday.

Traveling fans booed their team after a dismal stalemate with declining performances and just five points gained from the first five Premier League matches of the season, leaving Chelsea in a disappointing 14th place.

Asked about the disappointment shown by the club’s own supporters, Pochettino outlined the difficult circumstances he faces as manager.

He said: “I think the fans know that if you invest the type of money that people create in media, okay, that’s true, but it’s an expectation. If you don’t win, it’s normal that the fans aren’t happy.

“But what I can tell the fans is the circumstances, which we cannot change, the reality which we cannot change. We have too many players (absent), of course we are a team which will be strong if we are all together.

“Even Manchester City, Arsenal, all the teams, under normal circumstances with the whole team fit, of course, can compete for everything.

“Why is it different for us? For what? What is it because of? We do not have the entire squad available at the start of the season. What can we do? For my part, I have nothing to say. The fans can do whatever they want.

“We know what we have to do, we are firmly convinced. We were unlucky. We had 12 injured today, plus Noni, Cucurella and Caicedo.

“Then we have three/four young people and two goalkeepers on the bench. Okay, am I going to cry, am I going to complain? I have to accept this, the challenge and continue to be positive.

“Of course Bournemouth are a good team and they will compete. Every team is going to compete and be tough. Fair or not fair, this is the situation we must accept and we must be positive and patient.

“We are not going to change the way we do things and then we have our opinion, our reality. We evaluate the team and in our opinion, our reality, in our situation, we are doing very, very good things, more than people can expect. But Chelsea hope to win.

“I told you before the season, Chelsea want to win. We are creating something and we have to believe in it, the young people have to feel what it means to be a Chelsea player and of course what it means to play in the Premier League.

“I can understand the emotion, football is about emotion. If the emotion was of course to complain because we didn’t win, nothing more.

“The fans will definitely help the team on Sunday against Aston Villa, to support the team.”

Thiago Silva was very vocal on the pitch against Bournemouth and could often be seen berating his younger teammates, who continued to leave their positions in search of victory.

The Cherries were able to fight back, needing big saves from Robert Sanchez despite Chelsea creating chances for Nicolas Jackson, Raheem Sterling and Levi Colwill.

Pochettino admits Silva’s instincts for disorganization were present on the pitch, blaming the poor discipline on his team’s youth.

He added: “We spoke with Thiago at the end of the match about staying more relaxed because sometimes the defensive players want to help the team score because the feeling is we can’t score, we create the chance and don’t We can’t score and we have to be smart.

“It’s because Thiago has experience, but too many players are still learning the game. It’s construction and to build a new team we have to improve. There are a lot of rules in football that you can’t write down, in this type of game when you push to try to score and if you don’t score, it’s normal. If you can’t win, you can’t lose the game.

Pochettino used just three of his five substitutes on Sunday, with Christopher Nkunku, Reece James and Wesley Fofana among his injured star players.

The Argentinian explained why there were three others absent on Sunday, adding: “Cucurella, fever, yesterday he was at home and today still continues.

“Noni came from the national team with a muscle problem. Caicedo came in with a blow to the knee. We will evaluate tomorrow.