Mauricio Pochettino tells Noni Madueke to "be careful" after winger slammed Chelsea fans

Mauricio Pochettino has urged his players to speak carefully to avoid further upsetting Chelsea fans after Noni Madueke criticised them.

Chelsea return to action in the Premier League against Burnley on Saturday following the international break in a strange place with their own supporters. Their last match at Stamford Bridge saw Pochettino bombarded with chants of “you don’t know what you’re doing” for his substitutions and Raheem Sterling jeered for taking a dreadful free-kick.

The Blues beat Leicester 4-2 in that match to book a place in the FA Cup semi-finals, but the game exposed the fragile relationship between the manager, his players and their fans. Chelsea Supporters’ Trust have since released a damning letter which said the club was “at its lowest since the early 1980s” and warned of "irreversible toxicity" if things do not change.

Madueke came off the bench to score against Leicester and decided to speak out against the fans who booed Sterling. “It’s so important (to support him). I’m nobody to tell you not to have an opinion but I also have mine,” he said.

“That’s one of my team-mates and the criticism is harsh and unfair. It’s our duty to voice our opinion and try to change the narrative a bit. Raheem is an exceptional footballer and an even better person. It’s a bit upsetting when I see some of the criticism.”

Pochettino also voiced his support for Sterling after the match, but has now taken a more conciliatory tone ahead of a return to Stamford Bridge. “It’s about being calm now and accepting the situation,” he said at his pre-match press conference on Thursday. “The most important [thing] is to deal with this situation with our experience, and Raheem is a very experienced player. What we cannot do is create bigger things because of our emotions.

“I really believe our fans love our players and for sure they are going to support Raheem and the result of the team. The team-mates need to be good team-mates and players can talk and express their emotions and their opinions. But I think we need to be careful in the way we are talking and giving our opinions because we need to build a strong relationship with everyone.

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“I said after the game [vs Leicester] that I don’t agree [with booing] because always the players want to play well and score goals. I was also suffering the anger of the fans because of the disappointment. The whole team were suffering but the most important thing is Raheem is an experienced player, so for sure he understands.

“Look, now we need to move on and to help protect the player, that is our responsibility and the player must understand they need to make the effort to try and convince the fans we are in a very good way. The players need to love the fans and the fans need to love the players, it’s a connection we need to create because if not everyone is going to lose. That’s why we need to be careful with the way we talk about our opinions and emotions.”

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