Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino insists he can get Raheem Sterling back to his best.

Sterling has been barracked by his own Chelsea fans this season.

But Pochettino said: “Maybe Sunday can change these boos to claps.

“Chelsea always have massive expectations. When you arrive at Chelsea as a player or coaching staff, what do people expect?

“To win and win trophies and to perform and to score.

“Now we have a squad that is young and some players who are a big investment for the club.

“It's not fair to assess, OK, one game, two games, three games they're not performing and we paid money and they need to perform like this.

“Always I use the same example. Real Madrid paid a huge fee, I don't know what, for one player.

“The name was Zinedine Zidane, an amazing player. After six months you can ask the fans of Bernabeu, Real Madrid and people there — 'What have we bought?'

“And he started to perform after seven, eight months. Zidane was 26, 27 and when you bring a player of 18, 19, 20, 21, be careful, they're not machines."

Pochettino admits his young team needs an experienced Sterling back to his best.

He said: “We're happy because he is a player with experience that can help the young guys to evolve. If we can help the player to improve and be better and score goals and make assists, it's much, much better for him and for the team.

“I am so happy about his performances and about the way he behaved the last two weeks. He worked really, really hard.

“Now I want to enjoy him. But we were suffering in previous seasons! You can feel that he's fit, ready to compete, to get to his level and improving. And the last two weeks were important for him also moving forwards."