Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino eyeing Wembley ‘home’ advantage against Liverpool for Carabao Cup final as Blues boss hails strong ‘bond’ with stadium from Tottenham days

The Blues are preparing for a trip to Wembley on Sunday, as Pochettino eyes his first trophy as Chelsea manager. The Argentine returns to a ground he knows very well after his old side Tottenham played home matches there between 2017 and 2019, while the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was being built. Despite not having a particularly strong record at Wembley, the former Southampton boss says he cannot wait to go back.

He said in his pre-match press conference on Friday: "It means a lot for us, me and my coaching staff, to have the possibility to arrive in a final and to challenge a team like Liverpool to win our first title here, 11 years after we arrived at Southampton. It’s a dream for us and we have the possibility. We have 90 minutes to achieve that and we are going to fight. I think the team is ready, we are going to be very competitive and it is an amazing chance for us.

"Wembley is like home, because we played a lot there with Tottenham. It feels like going back to your home, because after one-and-a-half years competing there we created a very good bond between Wembley, the team and everyone there. For sure it is going to be special to play there and special if we win. We are going to give our best to compete, be better than Liverpool and deserve to lift the trophy."

After spending more than £1 billion ($1.27m) on transfers since Todd Boehly's infamous takeover in 2022, the Blues have a chance to win some much-needed silverware this weekend. This could kickstart an upturn in fortunes after a torrid couple of years by their standards and, if successful, this would be Pochettino's first trophy in English football.

After Chelsea's cup final clash against Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool, the west London outfit take on old rivals Leeds United in round five of the FA Cup next Wednesday at Stamford Bridge. They return to Premier League action away at Brentford on March 2.