Reece James outlines how Mauricio Pochettino can achieve Chelsea success amid sack speculation

Reece James has revealed his target for next season is helping to get Chelsea back into the Champions League after he starred in the Blues' comeback win against Nottingham Forest.

The Chelsea captain made an immediate impact in the 3-2 victory at the City Ground, providing what turned out to be the match-winning assist to Nicolas Jackson on 82 minutes. It was James' first appearance in over five months after surgery on a hamstring injury, but it took him just three minutes to help his side after coming off the bench in Nottingham.

The win for Chelsea was their third on the bounce in the Premier League with Mauricio Pochettino getting the best out of his team right at the end of the season. The Blues are now level on points with sixth-place Newcastle United as they go into their penultimate match of the season away at Brighton on Wednesday.

Chelsea are in a really strong position now to achieve European football in Pochettino's debut season with the club – something that was high on the agenda when the Argentine was appointed almost 12 months ago. A place in the Europa Conference League or Europa League is looking the most likely for Chelsea right now, but James, speaking to the club's official TV channel after the win in Nottingham, is already targeting bigger and better things for next season.

"We're learning every day," James said to Chelsea TV. "We're still young and during the season we've had a few off days, but on the whole we've improved and we're coming strong towards the end of the season.

"Europe is one of the highest levels in club football and we're one of the biggest clubs in club football, so we want to be pushing each season to be knocking on the door for the Champions League. That's the aim."

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Pochettino has been targeting reclaiming European status for Chelsea since taking over as head coach last summer. And it is believed qualifying for Europe has been a big goal of the club's owners ahead of the end-of-season review of Pochettino's position.

"I have one year left more on my contract," Pochettino explained after the win against Forest. "Like I said yesterday [Friday], I'm thinking always in the long-term, thinking that it is going to be for life here.

"We are professional, we try to win games. We are trying to make the owners happy and the staff. I am responsible for all of the staff at the training ground in Cobham. I try to make the players happy, and the fans. That is my job. Easy [laughs]. So easy."

The re-introduction of a whole contingent of key players returning from injury has come at the right time for Pochettino. Although he would have loved to have gotten some of them back a bit earlier in the season, the likes of James, Lesley Ugochukwu, Raheem Sterling, Christopher Nkunku, Malo Gusto and Levi Colwill have all returned to the squad in recent games.

It perhaps is not a coincidence that Chelsea have drastically improved in those matches. If the Blues can somehow find the root cause of the frequent injury problems they have been suffering with all season-long, then Pochettino will surely be able to kick on next term.

Only Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool – the current top three – have recorded more points than Chelsea since Boxing Day. Chelsea have lost just three of their 18 matches in that period, with only Man City suffering fewer defeats.