Chelsea's victory against Fulham overshadowed by ironic erasure of their winning culture

FROM STAMFORD BRIDGE — Chelsea managed to put their Carabao Cup disappointment behind them with a 1-0 win at home to west London neighbours Fulham on Saturday.

Mauricio Pochettino came in for heavy criticism after his side were beaten 1-0 at Championship side Middlesbrough in the first leg of their semi-final in midweek. He desperately needed a victory back in Premier League action to stave off talk of the sack.

His Blues side chalked up three points as hoped for and expected, but only by means of a Cole Palmer penalty. Fulham scarcely threatened, but Chelsea's biggest battle was with themselves.

The benefit of lacking a European campaign and a slowly-clearing injury list (or at least the same faces are out at any given time rather than a rotating cast) is Chelsea have been afforded some continuity over the last couple of months. Pochettino sides typically waken from early-season slumber in the festive period, and his boys in blue have now won four home Premier League games on the spin and climbed to eighth above Manchester United.

On the face of it, that's progress. Chelsea needed wins from somewhere just to ensure the season didn't slip away from them. A larger power threatens to derail them in the long-term, though.

Far too often over the last two seasons, punters have come away from Stamford Bridge wondering what sort of footballing nonsense they had just been served up. BlueCo's ownership have faced a gauntlet of questions already, but one stands above all else — why are Chelsea embarking on an unprecedented youth project when they were European champions just over two years ago?

The club's new owners are hardly strapped for cash, but they have decided to rip up the old Galactico-lite model to move in a completely new