Mauricio Pochettino to swing the axe! Chelsea plan huge fire sale of up to SEVEN players as Blues boss makes ruthless judgement call

Chelsea suffered their seventh Premier League defeat in 16 games on Sunday, falling to Everton at Goodison Park. The setback dropped the Blues to 12th in the standings, below London rivals Fulham and Brentford, and put the Argentine manager under intense criticism from supporters. Conversations have been ongoing between the directors and Pochettino about which players are seen as disposable and not performing at a high enough level to be at Chelsea for the foreseeable future. Noni Madueke, Trevoh Chalobah, Armando Broja, Marc Cucurella, Axel Disasi, Ian Maatsen, and Malo Gusto are among the players rumoured to be available for sale and replacement with higher quality in the next two transfer windows as per TEAMtalk.

The 51-year-old established after the loss against Everton that Chelsea must sign new players when the transfer market reopens in January, even though the club has already spent more than £1 billion since Todd Boehly's takeover last year. Despite rising pressure on Pochettino, he is supported by the club's owners, who are willing to go through difficult times in order to complete their project with the former Tottenham manager at the helm.

After the loss to Everton on Sunday, the Chelsea boss told BBC MOTD: "Football is about scoring goals and we were not clinical in front of goal. I'm really, really disappointed. We didn't get the point we deserved. I think we were better but we didn't get what we wanted. This was a game to play and to win. It's a problem we need to check. We need to analyse the reality. We need to talk and to try to improve in the next transfer market."

Before the arrival of the January transfer window, Chelsea have to contend with five more games as they look to change their fortunes for the season beginning with their clash against relegation-threatened Sheffield United on Saturday, December 16.