Thomas Tuchel has hailed Chelsea’s win over West Ham and claimed the win has lifted everyone’s mood in the Chelsea locker room.
Chelsea was not able to break West Ham in the first half as David Moyes’s side defended well and Chelsea came close in the second half as Jorginho missed a penalty in the 87th minute.
Captain America scored in the 90th minute to give Chelsea all but sealed Chelsea’s place in the top four with their London rivals Tottenham and Arsenal battling it out for fourth.
Before today’s win, Chelsea had lost three consecutive matches at home, the first in 29 years. A record Thomas Tuchel described as worrying and reducing their confidence in what they are doing.
What did Tuchel say?
Speaking to Sky sport after the match Thomas Tuchel said: “It seemed a bit stuck,”
“But we knew it. It can feel like this against West Ham who defends with a lot of bodies and discipline. We have to wait for the moment. We had some accelerations with Mason (Mount) from midfield but nobody was joining.
“It felt stuck. We controlled it but could not find spaces. It was also not the moment to take every risk after our recent results. We wanted to control their counterattacks. The red card may be opened more space to allow the late answer.
“It feels like a giant step. We have some games in hand. It was necessary and I am glad. The atmosphere is like this in the dressing room.
“We also deserved a bit of luck after the last results and how they were created here in our stadium. A big game is now coming up in Manchester. A good feeling with a late win. It lifts everybody’s mood.”
Regarding Jorginho’s missed penalty, he said: Jorgi has – or had – the perfect record with us. So we all believed we had finally the chance to score the goal we needed. He has a certain style of shooting, and I got the question just before, but when he scores – as he had done at a 100% level – it looks unbelievably cool and calm and composed. But when he misses, it looks like he could’ve done better. But it’s style, and he is right to stick to it. He is upset with himself and happy that Puli (Christian Pulisic) turned things around.”
Tuchel also praised Pulisic for scoring the match-winning goal for Chelsea.
He added: “Puli struggled a little bit since coming back from the international break where he had three matches, an incredible amount of joineries and timezones to cope with. From there, he struggled energy-wise. This was my impression, on and off the pitch. It’s sometimes like this.
“Now we have tried to bring him back in full confidence from the bench, and I am happy with the effort today, and I am happy he had the chance to have this big impact with Romelu and Hakim. It was super important.”
