Mauricio Pochettino called for the Chelsea fans to trust his players after a 3-2 win over Newcastle on Monday propelled the Blues back into contention for European football next season.

Pochettino had faced open revolt from among his own support during last weekend's 2-2 draw at Brentford.

The former Tottenham boss has suffered a difficult first season at Stamford Bridge, which included losing the League Cup final to a severely depleted Liverpool last month.

Chelsea remain 11th in the Premier League table, but closed to within four points of West Ham in seventh, which should at least secure a place in the Europa Conference League.

"We need to stick together," said Pochettino, whose side face Leicester in the FA Cup quarter-finals on Sunday.

Read full story on sport.timesofmalta.com

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.