Mauricio Pochettino isn’t happy that the current forms of two of his Chelsea players are being compared to that of last season.

Moises Caicedo and Robert Sanchez joined the Blues from Brighton during the summer and have slotted straight into the starting XI at Stamford Bridge.

The two players have however not exactly reached the expected levels at their new club, and when Pochettino was asked about their slow progress at West London, the Argentine replied the media at his Friday pre-match press conference: “I think it’s a process also.

“I think the problem is the temptation is to compare a player from one season to another when it’s not fair. Different environment, different moment and how the situation is now.

“I think if you talk about Robert the last three or four months he didn’t play and then arrived in the transfer window and also Moises arrived when we were already playing games in the Premier League with no pre-season with all the emotional situation that happened with him.

“Then he got injured playing for the national team, he is then travelling every single month, not time to rest and recover.

“For now it is good to have a few months with the possibility to have all the players and start to give more possibility to rest to play and focus on Chelsea. It’s completely unfair to compare players from one season to another and we of course have no doubt they are going to perform in the way we expect.”

On Caicedo’s £115m price tag allegedly weighing on him, Pochettino added: “It’s easy now to blame the money and different aspects because he’s a human being trying to find something.

“It’s normal it’s a process for him it’s tough but for everyone. Expectation is different and the context of teammates is different. It’s about time to fit in. We have no doubt it’s only time.”