Our head coach was delighted with Thursday night’s outstanding 2-0 win over London rivals Tottenham Hotspur. The way his team competed out of possession and worked for each other resulted in his most satisfying victory since taking charge last summer.  

With less than three days to prepare for yesterday’s crunch clash with another of our neighbours, West Ham United, it was no surprise that Pochettino stressed the importance of replicating the same level of intensity in what he felt was our ‘most dangerous game’. 

So for the Blues to hammer the Hammers in such emphatic fashion during the 5-0 win at Stamford Bridge, he was delighted. 

It wasn’t just the clinical finishing of our forwards which pleased the Argentine. It was also some of the behavioural traits shown by his players. 

One such moment was when Noni Madueke selflessly rolled the ball to Nicolas Jackson for our fourth goal because he was in a better position, despite having a great chance to score himself when one-on-one. 

Pochettino said: ‘When the team is young, you have to put it all together and start working until everyone starts to find their space and starts to feel really confident. That is the most difficult thing and always takes time. 

‘I said a few weeks ago, I am so happy now because we are so close to being in that position and that first step – after Tottenham, the way we competed was fantastic. 

‘The team is growing up very fast because that is the minimum standard that we need if we want to compete in this league.  

‘But now, with the maturity of Noni, rather than being selfish and trying to score, he gave the assist. When this sort of thing starts to appear, you know it is a very positive sign for the team. 

‘It was tough to arrive here [at this point] but now everything is going so fast and it is going to be fast being we have the quality.’ 

A number of players have seen their form improve in recent weeks. One of those is Marc Cucurella. 

The defender has not only shown great tenacity in defence, he often becomes an additional deep-lying midfielder when in possession in a tactical tweak made by Pochettino. 

Our head coach was asked about Cucurella and his new role in the post-West Ham press conference, and he raised a few smiles with two analogies to explain why tactical switches like this are not possible if the foundations have not been laid.

Pochettino explained: ‘This role is like others that we can implement in the future but before that you have to build the belief, the confidence and the trust the team needs to compete. 

‘All of the tactical evolutions we have in our heads as a coaching staff, yes we will apply that in the future. But you cannot sit if you do not have a chair. You have to build the chair. 

'The priorities in football are like an engineer who is constructing a building. Yes, I want to see quickly the nice furniture in the flat and sleep there, but first of all you have to build everything. 

'We always say to be careful of how you judge because the most important thing is to see what moment we are in and what type of team [we will be] – all these things are a priority.’