Not long until Poch picks his first Chelsea Premier League line-up against Liverpool

The days are ticking down to the onset of the Premier League season – Liverpool are first up for Chelsea and fans await with bated breath to find out what will be new head coach Mauricio Pochettino’s first starting 11.

Chelsea fans have rubbed the opposition support’s faces in it on many occasions in recent years with chant’s like ‘Champions League, you’ll never sing that!’. At least they have a full trophy cabinet to prove it.

But if they ever cry out ‘Premier League Summer Series winners, you’ll never sing that!’, then you will know things aren’t going too smoothly on the pitch.

Sarcasm is one tool fans initially use to vent their anger before it turns to frustration, and that is the challenge the new-look Chelsea babies face this month – to keep the sarcasm from their lips.

They beat Fulham, Aston Villa and the mighty Brighton in the US recently to give a sense of positivity in the camp, but there is still the unknown of starting a blood and guts Premier League match for real against a side desperate for a good start themselves.

The distraction of the purchase of French outfit Strasbourg, which Chelsea plan to use to harvest the ever-increasing young talent being bought for lots of cash on long-term deals, should not blind people from the reality that they finished 12th last season in the Premier League, and to get back into the top four at least is a monumental task.

Pochettino has been talking up the need for experience to be added to the squad before the transfer deadline. He knows the possibility of failure is real. He also knows that it might just turn out alright on the night.

The old saying that ‘it’s the hope that kills you,’ is never more true now for the boys from SW6, and fans will walk up the Fulham Road to Stamford Bridge on August 13 full of hope rather than the expectation they justifiably had in years gone by.