Moises Caicedo dealt injury blow vs Bournemouth as Mauricio Pochettino makes Chelsea call

Moises Caicedo has been dealt an injury blow during Chelsea's clash against Bournemouth. Mauricio Pochettino was forced to replace the 22-year-old midfielder with Lesley Ugochukwu in the second half after he appeared to pick up a knock.

Shortly after the hour mark at Stamford Bridge, Caicedo, who broke the deadlock in the first half from the halfway line, dropped to the floor and began clutching his leg. With the Ecuador international visibly uncomfortable, Pochettino decided to pull him from proceedings.

Meanwhile, Christopher Nkunku and Malo Gusto were brought on for Raheem Sterling and Noni Madueke. While the west London outfit have been riddled with injuries and absences this season, Pochettino remained positive in his pre-match press conference.

Speaking to reporters on Friday afternoon, the Chelsea boss was quizzed on the challenges he's faced during his debut campaign. The 52-year-old said: "Before we played Arsenal we played Manchester City, and Everton we beat 6-0 with one of our best performances. Now we cannot forget too many injuries and the team was really… not tried to recover.

"We played Saturday after the Manchester City disappointment at Wembley, and that was really tough to assimilate. The team were tired on the Tuesday, physically and mentally, and the first half was even.

"The second half, when we conceded the third goal… that maybe made the situation," Pochettino added. "That result happened and the team showed the same… The performance against Manchester City was amazing, and Everton. It was a bad day in the office. That can happen with all the team.

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"All these experiences will help. A negative. If a negative thing happens, you can turn it into a positive for your spirit in the future. It depends on your attitude."

Then, when asked what the turning point was in Chelsea's season after such a poor start, Pochettino replied: "We believed we could be there. Was there a turning point? The process to work, to keep pushing and believing.

"When everyone wants to attack you because they want results yesterday. They don’t show patience. That is why experience is really important in life, like in football. No doubt about yourself, about the way you plan to work and play.

"No doubt just because we don’t get what we want sometimes… sometimes football it takes time to build the links between the players. We protect the players.

"Sometimes we can be wrong, but the more experience and intuition, we saw it was only a matter of time that we could improve and perform better and get the results we wanted."