Mauricio Pochettino reveals why Chelsea job is harder than Tottenham amid Daniel Levy admission
Mauricio Pochettino says that beating Tottenham can kick-start Chelsea's season but believes his job at Stamford Bridge is harder than the one he had in north London.
The Argentine coach has overseen a patchy start to the campaign which has left Chelsea sitting in 11th place and 14 points behind Spurs, who entered the weekend top of the Premier League under new manager Ange Postecoglou.
His return to his former club on Monday night will be emotional and is full of pressure to earn all three points from a London derby.
Asked whether an important win could give Chelsea the confidence they need to kick on, Pochettino said: "It's a process but I hope it will be the game that will help us to grow quicker.
"Sometimes it is one game, one performance, one result or one goal that can help be the trigger to change and complete things."
Pochettino also had an underwhelming start to his time at Tottenham, only to become arguably the club's best manager of the Premier League era by reaching the Champions League final in 2019.
Pochettino was also asked whether his current run at Chelsea reminds him of those early Spurs struggles.
"Again, it is difficult to compare because when we arrived it was a year before that [Luka] Modric and [Gareth] Bale left," he said.
"They spent a lot of money signing players [to replace them] and then started a young project with Harry Kane, Eric Dier, Dele Alli, Ryan Mason, Nabil Bentaleb and Heung-min Son.
"Here, this beginning is tougher, because with this young team, it is harder to find a way to perform.
"We are putting pressure on the young guys to perform right away. At Spurs, experienced players were there and then we decided to move [them out] but the young guys were there working for a few months, four or five months to understand our way of working.
"Then, after a few months, players like Harry Kane started to play. Okay, that's why it is different and difficult to compare.
"For sure, Chelsea is an exciting project and we are going to find a way to get results. Performances are good but what we are missing is translating that to a positive result."