Pochettino issues dressing room BATTLE CRY to underperforming Chelsea stars

Mauricio Pochettino issued a dressing room rallying cry to his Chelsea players in a bid to inspire an upturn after their defeat to Aston Villa.

Chelsea’s 1-0 home defeat against Unai Emery’s side on Sunday left them languishing in 14th in the Premier League table with just five points and after suffering three defeats in their opening six games.

And during his post-match address to his players, Pochettino stressed that a collective effort will be required from all involved to turn things around and get Chelsea out of their current rut and is understood to have backed his players, insisting they have what it takes to reverse the club’s fortunes and bring an end to their difficult start to the season.

Chelsea’s only league win so far has come against newly-promoted Luton Town.

They have drawn against Liverpool and Bournemouth and lost to West Ham, Nottingham Forest and now Villa.

The Villa loss was the third game in a row in which Chelsea failed to score and win.

Pochettino said publicly in his press conference following the game: ‘We are a young team that is in process needing to learn altogether. It is difficult to talk about positives because when you lose it is difficult.

‘We need to talk about positive things, we need to keep the positives in. There's no doubt with time the team is going to perform. Of course I cannot hide the situation, it's a situation that disappoints all of the fans, the club, us and the players.

‘[We need to] give trust and then confidence. We have the squad that we have. We cannot change anything.

‘We try to build the confidence and to give them all of the support that they need because they need to perform on the pitch.’

Chelsea return to action on Wednesday when they host Brighton in the Carabao Cup