Lemon-loving Pochettino needs Chelsea forwards to sharpen up before mood turns sour

Half-time oranges are one of football's great culinary traditions but Mauricio Pochettino is a devotee of another type of citrus fruit.

The Chelsea manager keeps a bowl of lemons in his office, believing that they absorb negative energy – and they must have been working overtime during a tough start to the season for the Blues.

Chelsea haven't shown much attacking zest under their new boss, scoring just five goals in six Premier League matches and three of those came in a home win over relegation favourites Luton.

They were pipped 1-0 by Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa in their last two league games at Stamford Bridge and the performances of several big-money signings suggest Pochettino isn't the only Chelsea employee who has been sold a few lemons recently.      

Will there be a bitter end to the west London club's latest new era? Or, after their poor start to the campaign, is there now some juice in Chelsea's odds to finish in the Premier League's top four or top six?

This time last year prime minister Liz Truss was famously outstayed by a lettuce but it is surely too early to price up a survival match bet between Pochettino and his bowl of lemons.

However, with Chelsea already 13 points behind leaders Manchester City and nine adrift of the Champions League places, Poch needs to start making those lemons into lemonade before the atmosphere turns really sour at Stamford Bridge.

Hammers blow sums up Chelsea's early-season struggles 

Fresh starts are nothing new for Chelsea, who have employed 19 permanent and temporary managers since Jose Mourinho's first spell at the club ended in September 2007.

The arrival of Pochettino, though, felt fresher than most of their previous fresh starts. The summer saw an extensive overhaul of a squad who finished 12th last season, earning just 44 points from 38 games under Thomas Tuchel, Graham Potter and interim bosses Bruno Saltor and Frank Lampard.

Despite pre-season injuries to luckless centre-back Wesley Fofana and France forward Christopher Nkunku, a prolific goalscorer for RB Leipzig, there was optimism about Chelsea's chances as they kicked off the season at home to Liverpool.

Off the field they were in the process of beating the Reds to the signings of highly-rated midfielders Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia. On the pitch, having gone behind to an early Luis Diaz goal, they fought back well to claim a 1-1 draw against Jurgen Klopp's side.

Pochettino's men had almost 65 per cent possession, four shots on target to Liverpool's one, and centre-back Axel Disasi's debut goal capped a promising opening-weekend display from the Blues.

At West Ham the following week, Chelsea had even more of the ball – 75.7 per cent – yet lost 3-1 to a Hammers side reduced to ten men in the 67th minute.

Enzo Fernandez, a £106 million January signing, missed a penalty when the score was 1-1 and £115m debutant Caicedo gave away an injury-time spot-kick – two moments that illustrated the chasm between Chelsea's world-leading spending ability and their underwhelming efforts on the pitch.

A 3-0 home win over Luton on August 25, featuring two welcome goals for Raheem Sterling and a first for the club from striker Nicolas Jackson, was followed by 1-0 defeats to Forest and Villa either side of a  0-0 draw at Bournemouth.

Jackson scored the only goal in Wednesday's 1-0 EFL Cup third-round win over Brighton and Chelsea, who host Blackburn in round four, are 5-1 to win the League Cup. However, they are already ten points behind Brighton in the league and their odds to finish in the top four have drifted from 13-8 at the start of the season to 5-1.

No end in sight to finishing problems at Stamford Bridge

It may boost Pochettino's long-term job prospects if Chelsea owner Todd Boehly turns out to be an aficionado of expected goals (xG) and field tilt - a metric which shows the territorial dominance between teams.

The Blues start the weekend in 14th place in the Premier League but that is a very harsh reflection on their early-season performances judging by their underlying stats.

They have won the xG battle in all six of their league games, according to FBref.com, and their 66.5 per cent share of possession edges out Manchester City (66 per cent) for top spot in that department.

Chelsea's tally of 4,772 total touches is second only to champions City and only Ange Postecoglou-inspired Tottenham (237) have had more touches in the opposition penalty area than the Blues' 221.

Those stats make a total of just five goals in six games under Pochettino even more frustrating. Clearly, despite all the personnel changes, last season's problems in front of goal persist. 

In 2022-23, Chelsea scored 38 goals from an xG of 49.5, according to FBref.com, and had 958 touches in the opposition penalty area. In comparison, Leicester scored 51 goals from 688 touches in the opposition box and Leeds, another of the relegated teams, had 796 penalty-area touches and scored 48 goals.

After last weekend's defeat to Villa, Pochettino declared: "The only thing we are missing is scoring." The stats support that assessment but sharpening up Chelsea in front of goal will not be easy.

Nkunku, comfortably the most assured finisher at the club, may not be fit until January while Senegal striker Jackson is suspended for Monday's trip to Fulham after a spectacular haul of five yellow cards in his first six appearances.

Sterling has scored only eight league goals since arriving from Manchester City in the summer of 2022 and none of Chelsea's wide players or central midfielders seem likely to emerge as prolific goalscorers in the mould of club legend Lampard.

Tough run of fixtures could leave Blues even further adrift

It is a credit to Pochettino's coaching ability that a new-look, injury-hit Chelsea team has produced some fairly cohesive performances in the early weeks of his reign.

However, the Blues' lack of ruthlessness in front of goal means they are already well off the pace in the Premier League and their fixture list gets significantly harder over the next couple of months.

After trips to Fulham, who did the double over Chelsea last season, and Burnley they will face Arsenal, Brentford, Tottenham, Manchester City, Newcastle, Brighton and Manchester United – seven of last season's top nine – between October 21 and December 6.

Given that the Blues won only one of their 20 matches against top-half teams in 2022-23 – a 2-0 victory over an Aston Villa side struggling under Steven Gerrard – that run of fixtures could be the acid test of their lemon-loving gaffer's credentials. 

Click for free bets and betting offers from the Racing Post

Commercial notice: This article contains affiliate links. Offers are handpicked and come from operators our experts have first-hand experience of. Opening an account via one of these links will earn revenue for the Racing Post, which will be used to continue producing our award-winning coverage of horseracing and sports betting.