‘Sad moment’: Chelsea manager Pochettino on losing Reece James and beating Liverpool to Lavia signing

Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino has admitted the signing of Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia is a sign that Chelsea are going places after the pair turned down advances from Liverpool to move to west London.

Chelsea confirmed the signing of Moises Caicedo for a British record fee and the arrival of Romeo Lavia raises the level of competition in the team ahead of their Premier League game against West Ham this weekend.

The arrival of players this summer also now means Chelsea have spent almost £300million already, adding to the £600million in the last two transfer windows. There is still the feeling that squad needs a striker and possibly another goalkeeper after Kepa Arrizabalaga swiftly jumped to Real Madrid.

The injury to captain Reece James has always had a knock-on effect where the manager will have to move things around on Sunday. He’ll either have to bring in Malo Gusto who joined in January from Lyon or move Axel Disasi who impressed massively on his debut last weekend.

Despite all the happenings around the club, the Argentine manager says he’s happy with the way the squad is being moulded even though he’s been left feeling sad about the Reece James injury. He told the press: “On James, I think it’s a sad moment because he’s our captain, he was so excited to be the captain, full of energy. We are going to assess him day by day.

“It is a hamstring injury and we will have to assess him day by to see but it's a matter of weeks and not days because it is a hamstring injury.”

On beating Liverpool to two players they wanted to sign, Pochettino hinted with a smile before admitting it was the players' choice. He added: “That is the players’ decision. They decide to come here. I think it’s not a competition, it’s the player’s decision to join us. It makes us happy and they talk very highly about our owners.”

Chelsea lost 10 away Premier League games in the 2022-23 season, their most in a season since 1997-98 (11). They have, however, won their first away league game in six of the last seven seasons, losing the other 4-0 to Man Utd in 2019-20 but with the signing of both Caicedo and Lavio, Pochettino will hope he records his first Chelsea league win of the season in east London this weekend.