Chelsea have booked their place in the FA Cup semi-finals at Wembley after defeating Championship Leicester City 4-2 at Stamford Bridge. However, the game wasn't as straightforward as the scoreline may suggest.
The Blues led 2-0 at halftime, and things seemed to be going pretty well for the West London club. That was until a frantic start to the second half, which saw Leicester overturn the two-goal deficit and get themselves back into the tie.
However, a 73rd-minute red card to Callum Doyle gave the Foxes a mountain to climb, having to face the closing stages of the game with ten men.
After a questionable second-half performance, Chelsea finally booked their spot at Wembley with two goals in injury time for the Blues, including a Noni Madueke screamer.
Post-match Pochettino was proud of his teams achievement making it to Wembley for the second time this season but also increasingly irritable.
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"I know that they trust me"
Pochettino seems to be under constant pressure as Chelsea manager, with constant calls from Blues supporters for the ex-Tottenham boss to be given his marching orders.
The cup affair against Leicester highlighted the divided opinion amongst the Chelsea faithful over the Argentinian boss, with many supporters booing his decisions and some of his players throughout the game.
Interestingly, Pochettino insisted that he believes Chelsea supporters trust him while urging them to start trusting the club's hierarchy.
"No, I know that they trust me.
"They need to trust on the club because I am here it’s because the decision of the club and they need to trust the club.
"It's not to trust in me or to trust in the player, it's to trust on the club that the club is doing what the club think that this is good for the club and of course for the fans, it's about to, to trust in everyone, not only me."
The Chelsea boss went on to admit that fans becoming frustrated and taking it out on the managers decisions is a part of football.
"But of course, if we are playing and we concede a goal its 2-2 like this or they feel sometimes the emotion because they are disappointed, but it's normal that they show that they are not agree with some decision or because it's the feeling.
"But as I think we have very clever fans that they realise of the situation and then when they are on the street, you know, I was open to talk with them and they show their support."
In the ground, a decision that particularly irked Chelsea supporters, with booes echoing around the stadium, was the fact that Pochettino substituted Mykhailo Mudryk while Raheem Sterling remained on the pitch. However, the Chelsea boss hit out at his supporters reactions.
"I am not here to do what the people want. Also, I am not stupid."
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Que Sera, Sera
Pochettino praised his Chelsea team for making it to Wembley for the second time this season, urging his side to go one further than they did in the Carabao Cup and lift the trophy.
"No one can say that we didn't deserve it, I think we fully deserve to be going to Wembley and now we at Wembley the objective is to go again and for the second time, first was the Carabao Cup where we were in the final and now we are again in the FA Cup, you know, in the semifinal going to Wembley twice at the moment."
The Chelsea boss continued by explaining the importance of reaching the FA Cup semi-final with some reminiscent remarks.
"When I arrived in England, at Southampton they say ‘We need to go to Wembley.’
‘We need to go to Wembley.’ Southampton and Tottenham, ‘We need to go to Wembley to go to and now look in, in nine months in the two different competition, we got Wembley and we need to enjoy and we need to trust more."
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A balancing act
The Chelsea boss admitted that it is no secret that his side are not the finished article, and they need to put a lot of effort in to improve. He divulged that finding a balance between defence and attack seems to be the Blues biggest problem.
"I think we need to find the balance, the quality, you know, balance because we have great offensive players.
"They need to be more mature when we need help, when we don't have the ball to have more energy when we go to press and to make one, two, three effort and sometimes they broke the pressure, we need to run backward.
"But at the moment, we have too many explosive players that can do amazing action."
Pochettino reflected on how the absence of equilibrium between defence and attack caused his side to face huge challenges against Leicester, taking the heat off of the errors made by his defenders.
"I don't believe it's only the defensive line, we need to blame altogether because at the moment, yes, we have good intention but still we are growing, we are not in the level that we expect if we want to challenge the big sides."