Mykhailo Mudryk has already exposed a major flaw in Ange Postecoglou's tactics ahead of Chelsea's clash with Tottenham on Monday night. The 22-year-old winger has recently returned to first-team training following a muscle injury which omitted him from the matchday squad to face Brentford last weekend.

Before the September international break, Mudryk had been starved of opportunities in the starting lineup, feeding off cameo appearances in games where the Blues often found themselves in need of a goal against a low-block opposition. In fact, still to this day, he has only ever completed 90 minutes in the English top-flight once, starting 11 and coming off the bench in 12.

With Pochettino previously eager to shoehorn Thiago Silva, Axel Disasi and Levi Colwill into his backline, Ben Chilwell was preferred on the left-wing. The 26-year-old left-back started in each of the west Londoners' first four Premier League games this season but, after suffering a hamstring injury, the Chelsea boss eventually handed Mudryk the chance to impress.

While the Ukraine international has struggled to find the net, he's been a bright spark for the Blues with his performances improving game after game. Mudryk will be hoping to make his return to the Chelsea starting lineup against Tottenham on Monday night – and he's already shown Pochettino how to breach Postecoglou's backline.

Just over a year ago on September 14 2022, Mudryk equalised for Shakhtar Donetsk against Celtic, who were then managed by the current Spurs boss, in the Champions League group stages. After just 30 minutes, the Chelsea star was threaded in behind the Scottish side's defence and found the top right-hand corner with a fine strike on his left foot.

A month or so later, Mudryk scored another brilliant goal against Postecoglou at Celtic Park in the return fixture. Shakhtar caught the Bhoys on the counterattack in the second-half; the Ukrainian drove into the opposition half, glided inside off the left-wing and unleashed ferocious strike into the top right-hand corner.

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Mudryk has exposed Postecoglou teams twice already in his career, and the Chelsea star will be hoping to find even more space behind the Australian's right-back of choice on Monday night. Ahead of the London derby, Pochettino was asked how he plans to improve his sides goalscoring record.

"You can work every day and spend a lot of time," said the 51-year-old. "You can work but improving is about your confidence and your feelings. Sometimes players need time time to recover their trust.

"Not because you practice more. You need to have the right attitude and you need to be able to settle yourself, good feelings, the will to do. You can practice and practice and it's the same but if before if your mind is in the right place you can prove.

"At the moment we are fighting with this between recovering the trust in our offensive players," Pochettino added. "The most important is to get a good balance. You can feel we are improving, progressing, it is part of the process, part of the project, it is normal when you have young players who arrive at a club like Chelsea and the demand is high from the beginning.

"The demand and the competition doesn't wait for you. You need to put all the details, come from a different league, a young guy and put pressure on you. That is why it is about the process I am not worried, I am not concerned about that because we know what we are doing and we are going to perform and translate our performances into good results."