Raheem Sterling bagged a brace to inspire Chelsea to a 3-0 victory over Luton Town at Stamford Bridge on Friday evening.
The England forward’s return to form is the first sign that Pochettino is starting to bring life back to a team that struggled so much last season.
Even though Pochettino has only been in charge since July, he has already brought out the best in Sterling, whose career was in danger of ending after a dull first season with Chelsea.
After a 1-1 draw with Liverpool and a 3-1 loss at West Ham, Pochettino will be hoping that Chelsea’s first home win since March will get his job off to a good start.
It’s still early for the former Tottenham and Paris Saint-Germain manager, who has put together a new team that looks young.
Pochettino had to play without nine first-team players because of injuries. Among them were captain Reece James, summer signings Christopher Nkunku and Romeo Lavia, and summer arrivals Nkunku and Lavia.
But Sterling, one of only a few players in Pochettino’s team with a lot of experience, led by example to make sure Chelsea didn’t have their worst start to a season since 1998-1999.
Moises Caicedo, an Ecuadorian midfielder, played well in his first game for Chelsea after being bought from Brighton for a British record of £115 million.
Caicedo’s first game was a disaster against West Ham because he gave away a penalty and looked rusty after coming off the bench. This game, however, was more steady.
While Chelsea has high hopes after spending more than £350 million on new players since the end of last season, promoted Luton’s main goal is to stay in the Premier League.
After 31 years in the lower leagues, Luton finally made it to the Premier League. This was the first of the big games they had dreamed of when they were in the lower leagues.
Only five years ago, Luton was playing in the fourth level of English football, and the fact that they are the smallest club to ever play in the Premier League makes them the clear favourites to go down.
Luton’s first game of the season was a 4-1 loss to Brighton. Last week’s game against Burnley had to be postponed because of construction work at the small Kenilworth Road.
In a funny nod to their humble past, Luton fans chanted at Chelsea fans, “Conference champions, you’ll never sing that”
Sterling quickly started to bother Luton on the pitch. From 10 yards away, he hit a hard volley that keeper Thomas Kaminski did well to stop on the line.
After Jackson and Ben Chilwell broke through the Luton defence quickly with a counterattack, Enzo Fernandez hit the bar with a shot from the edge of the area.
In the 17th minute, Sterling scored the game’s first goal in a very impressive way. He cut in from the right side and slid past three confused Luton defenders before putting a beautiful low shot into the far corner.
Chilwell should have put Chelsea in complete control when he ran clear on goal early in the second half. Instead of shooting, the left back tried a strange pass to Sterling that was picked off.
Ryan Giles almost gave Luton a shock equaliser against the run of play. He took Elijah Adebayo’s pass and hit a deflected shot that Robert Sanchez had to save quickly.
But Sterling scored the game-winning goal for Chelsea in the 68th minute, making sure that their dominance would not go unrewarded.
Malo Gusto helped by sending a low cross that Sterling turned into a goal from eight yards out.
Seven minutes later, Sterling sent in a teasing cross that Luton’s defence missed, and Senegal striker Jackson quickly poked the ball home from close range.
Photo by EPA/Daniel Hambury
