Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino praised his team’s ‘intelligence’ for their ability to learn from previous errors, following the resounding 5-0 victory over West Ham.

The Blues scored five goals against David Moyes’ team at Stamford Bridge, but Pochettino was particularly impressed with the fourth goal, where Noni Madueke selflessly assisted Nicolas Jackson for an easy finish.

Madueke and Jackson had previously clashed over penalty duties in Chelsea’s 6-0 win against Everton last month, where both players argued over who should take a penalty, despite Cole Palmer being the designated taker.

Their behavior at the time drew significant criticism, but Pochettino emphasized that Sunday’s display indicated significant maturity and growth in his young squad.

“The assist from Noni to Jackson, that showed that we learn, that we are smart,” Pochettino said.

“The situation with the penalty if you remember against Everton, we received many criticisms but a young team always needs to make mistakes, we need to feel this situation to improve.

“We are able to improve it because we are smart and intelligent people. I think today was a great action of Noni to see how the group is starting to live and starting to feel in between them.

“This always is process that takes time. You never know if it’s going to take one month, six months or a year. The most important thing is that they start to set the principles feel and live like a group of players that are creating all the links in order to compete.

“That is the reality. I am so pleased for that because we [the staff] are part of this process, helping them to grow and be more mature and improve all the aspects.

“I think that it’s only the first step, massive step but it is a step that we wanted to reach. From there, we can evolve in all the other aspects.

“Without principles, without things that we start to show in a competitive way, it’s impossible to evolve other aspects.”