When Mauricio Pochettino sits down with Chelsea’s board for the review that will determine whether he continues as head coach, perhaps he can point to the fact that he has imbued his collection of young talents with so much confidence that European football was secured in part thanks to Moisés Caicedo scoring from halfway.
It turns out that this is what £115m buys these days: crunching tackles, perceptive passing and a goal of the season contender.
Pochettino refused to say whether he received assurances on his future from Todd Boehly after going out for “a very nice dinner” with Chelsea’s co-owner last Friday.
This entertaining 2-1 win against Bournemouth was further proof that Chelsea, who will play in the Europa League rather than the Europa Conference League if Manchester City beat Manchester United in the FA Cup final, do not need more upheaval.
There are hints of unity at Stamford Bridge. Nobody was booing Raheem Sterling when he scored the goal that secured sixth place for Chelsea, while Caicedo’s improvement since his move from Brighton last summer is evidence of the plan coming together. The midfielder started the campaign slowly and ended it by embarrassing Bournemouth’s goalkeeper, Neto, with his astonishing goal.
Chelsea being Chelsea, though, there would still be flashes of defensive frailty for Pochettino’s bosses to consider. Bournemouth, who finished 12th in an impressive debut season for Andoni Iraola, halved the deficit through Benoît Badiashile’s own goal and should have completed the fightback in added time. Dominic Solanke could not believe that he fired over an open goal after Djordje Petrovic saved from Dango Outtara. Behdad Eghbali, José E Feliciano and Todd Boehly, Chelsea’s co-controlling owners, may have wondered why Bournemouth were given so much space to counterattack in the 94th minute.
