Pochettino’s strong record against Guardiola can give Chelsea fans a hope
Pochettino’s impressive track record against Guardiola can offer Chelsea fans a ray of hope!
It’s Mauricio Pochettino against Pep Guardiola on the sidelines tomorrow, with the two coaches renewing a rivalry that goes back many years.
Guardiola wins the overall battle of course – he’s got 13 wins from 22 games against Pochettino, but he’s also managed the dominant team in the division throughout, while Pochettino has had a variety of teams of differing strength to try and compete.
What’s interesting is that Pochettino beat Guardiola as manager of Espanyol, as manager of Spurs and as manager of PSG. They didn’t overlap during Pochettino’s time at Southampton, but he did at least beat Man City in that time.
As records against Guardiola go, this is a very good one. Tomorrow is going to be a very hard game – we’re a flawed team going up against a winning machine. But anything can happen in football, and at least our manager knows how to set up to beat his opposite number.