https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2021/08/05/
tuchel-taking-the-positives-from-spurs-draw-and-feels-we-deserve
Tuchel taking the positives from Spurs draw and feels we deserved more
05 Aug 2021
Thomas Tuchel feels there were plenty of positives to take from our 2-2
friendly draw with Tottenham Hotspur having been pleased with the
intensity of the game.
https://i.imgur.com/uVygUfA.jpg
The last of our pre-season matches before the competitive action begins
saw us hosting London rivals Spurs at Stamford Bridge in the second of our
Mind Series fixtures, in front of a vocal crowd of Chelsea supporters
watching without the need for social distancing for the first time since
the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Our head coach felt that combination of the atmosphere inside the stadium
and a derby match, in addition to the performance of a certain Frenchman
in our midfield, helped make for a highly competitive game, despite there
being no points on the line.
'The game was very intense, you could feel the impact of the supporters,'
said Tuchel. 'It did not feel like a friendly match at all for the first
25 minutes, then the game had a little drop in intensity, and then in the
last 15 minutes of the first half, with every ball win from N'Golo Kante
there was another chance to accelerate the game.'
https://i.imgur.com/yvnHtHH.jpg
Kante played a big part in our impressive first-half performance
We dominated much of the match and took a two-goal lead through Hakim
Ziyech's brace, before Tottenham fought back to secure a draw at the
Bridge following a number of Chelsea substitutions, as Tuchel tried to
share the minutes among as many players as possible before the start of
the season.
Given our performance, he feels we deserved more than a draw from the
game, but was still pleased by plenty of what he saw from his team.
'We should have won. I'm very happy with the first 60 minutes, we started
very well. We had active ball recoveries, we created good chances, we had
good control of the ball, good defending spirit, so for 60 minutes I was
very happy.
https://i.imgur.com/OoHo8aK.jpg
"It did not feel like a friendly match, I saw what I wanted to see"
'Then we had a lot of changes and unfortunately two big individual
mistakes and the opponent Tottenham was very efficient to use them and
take away a draw. It's always also about the result, but I think today
there are a lot of positive things for us to take from this match.'
While those second-half substitutions may have disrupted our rhythm and
allowed Tottenham to recover their footing, Tuchel was pleased to have had
the opportunity to give those players time on the pitch to impress and
improve their fitness.
That is especially true for the youngest Chelsea player on the pitch, Tino
Anjorin, who the German says we would have seen a lot more of recently if
he hadn't missed much of our pre-season while suffering from Covid-19.
'I'm a bit sad because he trained so well for us in the last half a year
and then the race for the top four was on and there was so many decisive
matches every three days, so there was not actually the moment to try
stuff with young players,' explained Tuchel.
'But he showed his quality in every training, so when the season ended we
both agreed that he stays for pre-season and he will get his minutes that
he deserves. Unfortunately, before the first friendly starts, Tino was the
guy to catch the Covid virus and really suffered for 10 to 12 days. You
could see it today, which was the first time he could be back on the
pitch, and it was quite a lot for him to stand the 30 minutes. So he was
very unlucky without having any fault in the situation.
https://i.imgur.com/p493PRk.jpg
Anjorin came off the bench for his first appearance of pre-season
'Honestly, I cannot really judge him on what I saw today because I think
he still struggles from his illness. He had some trouble to adapt to the
intensity today, but in the first five or 10 minutes when he started it
was very promising again. He's confident, he's strong, he's creative. He
scores a lot of goals and assists a lot of goals in training, but I wish
we would have had the chance to see him against Peterborough, against
Bournemouth, against Arsenal, so that he could really make a statement.'