Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino acknowledges the fans’ frustration during Saturday’s draw at Brentford.
The club are 11th in the Premier League, having won just 10 games this season, and the Argentine is under growing pressure at Stamford Bridge.
“We need to accept the frustration,” Pochettino said on Thursday.
During the 2-2 draw at Brentford, where a late Axel Disasi header rescued a point for the Blues, some fans chanted the name of former boss Jose Mourinho.
“Maybe if I was a fan I’d be the same because we are not matching the expectation,” added Pochettino, who took charge last July.
“We must be responsible for our performance and try hard to improve.”
Since Todd Boehly’s takeover in May 2022, Chelsea has invested over £1 billion in transfers. However, Mauricio Pochettino has faced challenges in integrating the expensively assembled squad on the field.
Following their defeat in the Carabao Cup final against a weakened Liverpool side, the club was labeled as “billion-pound bottle-jobs” by Sky Sports pundit and former England defender Gary Neville.
With Chelsea currently closer to the relegation zone than the top four, they will host Newcastle in the Premier League on Monday.
“We are suffering negativity but we can’t stop believing, we must keep believing and try to perform on Monday,” Pochettino said.
“I really believe we can succeed. Of course we need our fans. We hope the fans will be behind us on Monday to help us win the game. That is so important for our players.
“We can believe that we can start to win games to get close to qualifying for Europe. The opportunity is there but if you give up belief we will go down [the league].”
Chelsea revealed pre-tax losses of £90.1 million for the period between March 2022 and June 2023, marking their inaugural year under the ownership of Todd Boehly’s Clearlake Capital consortium.
This figure represents a decrease from the previous year’s losses of £121.4 million. Additionally, the club’s turnover has risen from £481.3 million in 2021-22 to £512.5 million.
The sale of Chelsea to a consortium spearheaded by American investor Boehly and private equity firm Clearlake Capital, amounting to £4.25 billion, was finalized in May 2022.