Chelsea produced a superb performance on Thursday evening to beat Tottenham at Stamford Bridge, but already attentions have turned to Sunday when fellow London rivals West Ham United make the short trip to SW6.

The Blues beat Spurs thanks to goals either side of half-time from Trevoh Chalobah and Nicolas Jackson. Mauricio Pochettino was delighted with what he saw from his side on Thursday night and even said it was the “happiest” he has been after a game during his short time with the club.

Pochettino’s side now have a real chance of qualifying for European football this season, with the Blues just two points behind seventh-place Newcastle United going into this weekend’s round of fixtures. West Ham will prove a much different test to Tottenham for Chelsea but one the Blues will be expected to win in front of their home supporters.

Looking ahead to the next London derby, Pochettino was asked several questions on the Hammers’ threat, his future at Chelsea, the injury situation, the Blues’ home form and more. Bobby Vincent has provided the full transcript from his pre-match press conference below.

What’s the latest on Nkunku and Colwill? And how important will those kids [on the bench] be?

“It’s a good thing that the players need to arrive from injury feeling that they need to make the effort. It’s not because you are a big name, you have pride to come here and go to play in the way that you want. The most important thing we can learn today is that it is not about quality because when you are at Chelsea, assume you have the quality.

“But the most important thing is that you go and work for the team. Play giving your best and stay at your best. If you go there and you don’t compete, or your level is only 50%, I think it is better that someone with less quality, maybe younger, but competing at their best 100%. It happened during the season that maybe we have had lack of some type of player at their best to compete and get the results that we deserve.

“I say when you come back from injury you need time to build your condition and be at your best. Always because of different circumstances, setbacks, always we’ve never had the whole team at its best. That is the difficult thing we have been displaying. That is why we have been inconsistent during the whole season.”

Is Europe your goal? No more slips if so…

“We cannot blame the players. We can blame the circumstances but we cannot blame the players. The players want to give their best. Today against Tottenham we showed that playing this way, competing this way, we can achieve what we want.”

Is the speculation on your future affecting you? You said to the cameras after the game ‘enough is enough’…

“Speculation? No, they asked me. We need to put it in context and be clear. They asked me some questions but I never said it is affecting. If I say that, I cannot remember because my English is getting worse and worse [laughs]. I don’t know. I don’t want to lie but I don’t believe I said that.

“We were talking about the judgement at the end of the season, and this and that and if I feel like I am under scrutiny and judgement. What I say, I don’t remember so well now.

“It is like to prove after all these circumstances and this situation that we deserve to be here next season. I said, ‘who is going to judge me?’. We need to judge ourselves and the players. I wanted to say it is enough with these type of rumours.

“I have one year left on my contract here and if nobody says nothing, then suppose I am going to be here. Only if someone says to me ‘ciao’ because we don’t know. I have one year left on my contract and I am going to be here but enough is about these stupid rumours because you need to ask the club if the club want me to keep going or not. Not to writing that has no sense, you know?”

Your home form at the start of the season was not so good, but are teams scared of coming to Stamford Bridge now?

“Not so good? If we talk about performance I think we for sure we deserve points. Talking about performance we are in the top four. The result and competing is different. I agree with you that we didn’t compete well. But talking about performance I think we are in top six.”

Has something changed? Teams seem scared to come here now…

“We appreciate that. Today it was fantastic, [thanks to] the help of the fans. You need to ask them [the other teams]. I think that it is true that last season the team was struggling a little bit, struggling to win here. Now we are doing fantastic in the last few months. That is good for the team.”

The last four games look winnable on paper, is it dangerous to think like that?

“These are the most dangerous games because now we have to keep the same mentality. West Ham are a strong team, with great physicality, and they have had a fantastic season.

“They have been competing well in Europe and for us, we need to recover and maybe add some fresh legs to our squad because West Ham have had a whole week to prepare – that is why these are the most dangerous games.”

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