Mauricio Pochettino makes blunt admission ahead of Aston Villa vs Chelsea

Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino has made a blunt admission ahead of his side's FA Cup clash with Chelsea on Wednesday night. The two sides meet as Villa Park this time after playing out a goalless draw at Stamford Bridge in the original tie.

Since then, Chelsea have lost both of their Premier League games, conceding four goals in each of those outings, losing 4-2 to Liverpool and 4-1 to Wolves. Serious pressure is now building around Pochettino just months after his arrival in West London, with the Blues now sitting in the bottom half of the Premier League.

And speaking ahead of his side's clash with Villa, Pochettino has admitted he and his side are behind schedule, saying: "Of course, it's a difficult job, but it is exciting. I trust we are going to win games."

He added: "I am a coach and I can make a mistake. Sometimes that can happen and we need to keep moving and being strong because I think we have a very good group of players, who as I keep explaining, are not performing as we expect [from the start of the season].

"As always, when the expectation is different from reality, it is difficult to get what you deserve. That's why there's impatience. Against Liverpool, it was all about what a massive failure and how bad Chelsea is. Liverpool just lost against Arsenal but didn't hear the same despite a similar result to when we played Liverpool. That is affecting the players because we need confidence and support.

"We need the support of our fans and to leave behind a different Chelsea. The fans need to realise this is a different situation, and we cannot send a different message, the wrong things, to the people who start thinking things that don't happen.

"That's why we need support because I know the quality of these players. I trust and believe in the players. I told them that in a meeting today. The only problem is it takes time to build a team. That's the reality we want to translate to the fans and ask them to be patient. There are many things we need to fix before thinking about tactics or football. But we are trying to fix all the things. We will soon be in the position the fans deserve."