Sarri feeling the heat at Chelsea but Pochettino needs to win a trophy more

Mauricio Sarri’s bizarre post-match meltdown at Arsenal, which he then followed up on by criticising the contribution of Eden Hazard, means all the flak has gone to the Chelsea manager.

You do not have to be a long-standing student of the club to know that when a Blues boss falls out with the dressing room, it tends to be only a matter of time before he is shown the door.

The fates of Luiz Felipe Scolari, Andre Villas-Boas, Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte – you could easily add interim boss Rafa Benitez and the short-lived Roberto Di Matteo to that list – are all the evidence required.

But events at Stamford Bridge tonight will mean just as much to the manager in the other dug-out, if not more so.

Yes, unlike the situation facing Sarri if things continue to go downhill, there is not a chance in Hell of Mauricio Pochettino’s job at Spurs being in question.

Daniel Levy knows that Poch is the glue that holds everything together.

It is also true that the absences of Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Heung-min Son would give Poch a get-out clause if his side fail to hold on to their narrow first leg advantage.

Yet while Pochettino will not be judged at Spurs by whether he wins the Carabao Cup, a tangible validation  of the work he has done at the club would get that one last monkey off the Argentine’s back.

Win a trophy, any trophy, and the issue does not get raised again.

At least, not for a few weeks!

It might be the least of the four tournaments Spurs entered at the start of the season. And unquestionably the one Pochettino himself values least.

The Argentine might, should he so choose, point to the fate of the last Spurs boss to win that piece of silverware, Juande Ramos, to underline his argument. The Spaniard was gone within eight months.

Yet if Pochettino can find a way of negotiating the second leg at the Bridge and then beating Manchester City at Wembley WITHOUT so many of his star assets, that would only demonstrate the true value of his efforts.

Pochettino does not like being judged on his lack of silverware and will have bristled at the comments – directed at him and Jurgen Klopp – by Mourinho from the pulpit of the beIN Sport

Studio last week.

But the only way that barb will disappear is if he does land a trophy. It is as simple as that.

And, as so many clubs have shown, landing the first is the precursor to becoming a winning machine.

Mourinho’s first trophy in England was the League Cup, in its 2005 incarnation. City’s first success under their Abu Dhabi owners was the FA Cup. Wins beget wins.

Spurs might be counting down the days until they can finally move into their gleaming new 62,000 home back at White Hart Lane.

But if they can do so with something to put into that new, empty, boardroom trophy cabinet it would feel like an even bigger kick-start and springboard.

All the more so given the injuries that Pochettino has endured all season.

After all, at various stages he has been missing not just Kane, Son and Dele but also Hugo Lloris, Kieran Trippier, Davinson Sanchez, Jan Vertonghen, Danny Rose, Christian Eriksen, Victor Wanyama, the now-departed Mousa Dembele, Eric Dier, Moussa Sissoko, Erik Lamela and Lucas Moura.

Despite that, Spurs are still in all four competitions and stand third in the Prem.

Not bad, especially if you consider their status as Wembley tenants and the lack of summer transfer activity.

Getting over tonight’s hurdle, though, would feel even more significant in the circumstances.

Pochettino’s reputation does not rest on events at the Bridge.

But get this one right, find a way of conjuring the right result with the hand he has been forced to play, and his status will only be bolstered. It is a big night for Poch, too.

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