When Axel Disasi beat Erling Haaland to a header and celebrated as if he had scored, Mauricio Pochettino felt like celebrating too. “Look, things are changing,” Pochettino said, grinning about the moment in Chelsea’s 1-1 draw away to Manchester City last Saturday. “The process of all new teams is to build this competitive spirit. [What Disasi did] is a good sign. That is when, as a coaching staff, you start to feel, ‘We are in a good way.’ ”
The head coach was not the only one smiling. Chelsea’s co-sporting directors, Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart, exchanged knowing smirks at Disasi’s antics. During the process of recruiting the 25-year-old defender from his former club, Monaco, Stewart had played Winstanley a set of video clips, chuckling:
