January 5th 2024.
Mauricio Pochettino is taking the FA Cup very seriously and has hinted that he will name a very strong team for Chelsea's clash against Preston North End this Saturday. Even though the Blues have struggled this season, their form has picked up of late in contrast to the Lilywhites who are 14th in the second tier and go into this game off the back of just one win in five.
In his pre-match press conference, Pochettino declared that there will be little rotation in his starting XI and that he is treating this match like a Premier League fixture. He said, “Not too many changes. Playing with the circumstances of course, not going to change too much the team. Once or twice, players normally not in the starting XI but we need to anticipate problems. We take it like a Premier League game, it’s not because it’s the FA Cup. Full respect to Preston and tomorrow you will see.”
He continued, “[Momentum is] always important, we are winners, we want to win. Need to work more and more and more. It’s going to be really important to go through to the competition and be in the next round but before we need to compete well and be better.”
Nicolas Jackson has been Chelsea’s first choice centre-forward this season but with the Senegal star absent because of AFCON, Armando Broja and Christopher Nkunku have the chance to claim the striker spot in the starting XI. Pochettino confirmed that Armando Broja is in line to start against Preston, saying, “Armando has the possibility to be more involved as he is one of our main striker. Amazing potential and qualities and now is to forget his injury of last year. I am going to tell you Christoph is not going to start tomorrow as he suffered issues during the week but he is going to be in the squad. We need to be careful with him.”
Clearly, Pochettino is taking the FA Cup seriously and with the stakes high, it will be interesting to see what team he puts out against Preston on Saturday.
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