Pochettino's Chelsea take 'massive step' after stop-start season

LONDON : Chelsea's first back-to-back Premier League wins in four months suggest Mauricio Pochettino's young side are finally finding their feet as they chase what until recently had looked like an unlikely target of European competition next season.

Sunday's 5-0 hammering of West Ham United - with Nicolas Jackson scoring twice - represented the second London derby victory in four days for the high-spending but inconsistent Blues, after a 2-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur on Thursday.

It was the first time that Chelsea won two league games in a row since a run of three wins spanning December and January, and it was the first time all season that they kept two consecutive clean sheets.

Chelsea coach Mauricio Pochettino said his team had a taken a "massive step" forward and was coming together as a group after being assembled in a splurge of signings over the two years since a U.S. private-equity led group bought the club.

"Always it's a process that takes time," the Argentine told reporters.

"You never know if it's going to take one month, six months or one year, but I think the most important thing is that they start to settle the principles, that they start to feel and live as a group."

There have been false dawns before in Pochettino's first season at Stamford Bridge.

After a last-gasp 4-3 win over Manchester United in early April, he said Chelsea seemed to be at a turning point only for them to be held to a 2-2 draw by bottom club Sheffield United and then suffer a 5-0 thrashing at Arsenal later in the month.

But there are now signs that the youngest squad in the Premier League are starting to gel.

Pochettino noted how Noni Madueke had unselfishly squared the ball to Jackson for the Senegal striker's first goal, a far cry from