The Argentine named a youthful starting XI for our first friendly of the summer against Wrexham, but those involved proved more than capable as the League Two side were beaten 5-0 in Chapel Hill.

Next comes the Premier League Summer Series and Brighton, who last season finished sixth in the top flight under Roberto de Zerbi. The step up in quality is obvious.

However, Pochettino is adamant he will not simply select his side based on whether a player has top-flight experience.

‘No, I’m going to mix,' explained the Chelsea head coach at his pre-match press conference. 'We have players that need time to train. For example, Enzo only arrived on Monday after a long period of holiday and now we’re going to play Brighton.

‘It's not a situation where we are playing a Premier League team so we need to play with a senior player. We need care about the player and provide the best tools for him to arrive in the best condition at the start of the Premier League.

Pochettino continued: ‘We are going to continue to provide the young players with the possibility to play on Saturday and in the next few games.

'For all the players here, the objective is to arrive in the best condition against Liverpool. You can use excuses a week before the start of the Premier League. We need to arrive in the right condition and for that we need to use the games against Brighton, Newcastle, Fulham and Dortmund.

‘We need to manage the players. Reece (James) arrived yesterday in the UK and it would be easy for me to say go and play, but there is a risk.

'Maybe nothing would happen and it would be ok. But if something happened, maybe we have to wait one or two months. So the objective is to provide the best tools for the individuals and set the principles.’

Pochettino and his staff are overseeing a 30-man group in the U.S. The work on the training pitches has been hard but necessary, as admitted by Trevoh Chalobah and Raheem Sterling this week.

Off the pitch, there has been plenty of time at the team hotels to bond. A smaller squad has helped make that easier, as the Chelsea head coach explained.

'The balance is the most important thing,' he said. ‘Sometimes you get that balance with less than more.

'In the end, you can only play eleven players. And it’s not that you can’t manage that situation, the problem is players that aren’t going to play, from where do they get the motivation to be strong every day in training?

‘Sometimes players that are not involved yet need to be in the dynamic of the squad, it’s normal that they are not going to bring good things. It’s not going to be easy for them first, and not fair, and we then can’t ask to be happy and bring good energy.

‘It’s why we can’t blame players. We need to be clever, strong, and be right in our decision on the number if we have injuries or suspended players to compensate for. But it won’t be so big because it will not be for the benefit of the team.’

Much has been made during the opening week of our U.S tour about the number of young players in the travelling squad – and it was put to Pochettino whether that made it easier to manage his group come match-day.

‘The objective is to win, it’s not to just be good,' he responded. 'For that we need good players. If they are young and good enough to be in the squad, then of course, but not because they are going to be easy to manage.

‘I don’t want easy players to manage. I want players that are going to perform on the pitch and bring good things and help the team to win. Not other things.

'I don’t want people that are easy to manage. I want people that care about the team, compete in the best way, and have the capacity to bring success to the team.’

Tonight's game is free to view on the official Chelsea app and website, but please note it will not be available to UK or USA viewers due to broadcast restrictions.