'He's an important player': Mauricio Pochettino reveals the importance of ex-Man City star

Mauricio Pochettino's Chelsea started their pre-season campaign with a 5-0 win against Wrexham AFC. Dutch footballer Ian Maatsen was the star of the match and scored two goals. Other than Maatsen, Conor Gallagher, Ben Chilwell, and Christopher Nkunku scored 1-1 goal each. The Pensioners will look forward to lifting the English Premier League trophy once again after a gap of six years and break Manchester City's dominance. 

3 things you need to know 

• The upcoming season of the Premier League will be Chelsea's first major tournament under Mauricio Pochettino
• Before Pochettino Chelsea sacked a total of three managers within a period of three months 
• Chelsea will play their next Premier League Summer series match against Brighton  

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Mauricio Pochettino explains the value of Raheem Sterling in Chelsea 

(Raheem Sterling while playing for Chelsea in the Premier League / Image: AP) 

English footballer and former Manchester City star Raheem Sterling parted ways with the EPL giants and joined Chelsea in the year 2022. Sterling since then has not performed well for the Pensioners and has only scored six goals for the club in 28 appearances for the club so far. 

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New Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino has explained Raheem Sterling's importance in Chelsea and believes that he will perform well in the upcoming Premier League season. While speaking after the match against Wrexham AFC, Pochettino said: 

I think he's an important player for us. He's in our plan. He can provide to the team many different things. We are confident that we can get the best from him to help the team to achieve what we want. 

Raheem Sterling's performance for Chelsea in Premier League 2022-23 

Raheem Sterling disciplined EPL 2022-23 season and made a total of 12 shots on target out of 22 shots wherein he converted six into goals. His expected goal data was 6.51 which also indicates his efficiency in scoring goals. Sterling also made a total of 23 passes per match and the pass completion rate was 79%. 

Despite an aggressive style of play, Raheem Sterling maintained a lot of discipline on the ground and received four yellow cards and zero red cards. His player rating was 6.83 which also indicates his consistent performance in the last season of the Premier League.