Mauricio Pochettino can notch a new Todd Boehly-era Premier League winning run on Sunday and heap pressure on Chelsea’s bosses to keep him at the helm.
Pochettino could lead Chelsea to five league wins in a row for the first time in two years in the season-closing clash against Bournemouth.
The last time Chelsea won five league matches on the spin, Thomas Tuchel was manager and Roman Abramovich was still owner.
Pochettino is understood to boast growing support from Chelsea’s board to continue into a second season. The Blues’ hierarchy has continued assessing other options, including Sporting’s Ruben Amorim.
Pochettino will meet co-sporting directors Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley, as well as club owners, next week in a key meeting to determine his future. The season’s review will examine a turgid first half of the campaign, but also how Chelsea have become the league’s fourth-best team on form since the turn of the year.
Chelsea entered April in 11th place in the table, but six wins, two draws and one defeat since have shot them up to sixth. Suddenly, Europa League qualification is within touching distance, but supporters are not yet completely won over.
“Lately, Pochettino has got a lot of things right,” said Chelsea supporter Jordan Brightman-Charles. “But if he were to start next season the way a lot of this season has gone, I think people would want change.
“It’s been jarring having to deal with the scale of change, in the dugout, on the pitch, in the hierarchy. It’s hard to get attached to personnel.”
Graham Potter, Bruno Saltor and Frank Lampard have all manned the Chelsea tiller since the last five-match winning run, before Pochettino took control last summer.
Beat the Cherries in style, though, and Pochettino might just break that cycle.
