Thomas Tuchel was back for his pre-match press conference ahead of Chelsea’s Premier League clash against Leicester City at Stamford Bridge.
The game is the Blues’ penultimate fixture of the arduous 2021/22 campaign, and there is very little riding on it as Chelsea’s place in the top four – and Champions League football for next season – was confirmed on Monday evening when Arsenal succumbed to defeat against Newcastle United.
Third spot in the table does remain up for grabs, but Tuchel and his players know just a single point is enough to see off the late challenge of Tottenham Hotspur. There will be a desire among the Chelsea squad to finish as the best of the rest behind Man City and Liverpool.
Here are the 5 main talking points from today’s press conference:
On the Team News:
Havertz: “Big question mark.”
Werner: “Out with hamstring.”
“Ben Chilwell is back in team training, it was a big lift for everybody but he is not available. Kova’s ankle was swollen after the match so I am not sure he will be available.”
On Andreas Christensen:
“Not sure yet if he’s involved tomorrow and at the weekend.
Andreas came on the morning of the match and told me he was not ready for the match. He had his reasons, they stay private and confidential, but it was not the first time.
It was on very short notice before the cup final and other matches in the weeks before. So no chance I have any prediction for tomorrow and the weekend.
We had to accept it and will accept it. I believe Andreas wanted to play these matches and could in terms of potential and what he gave to the team, but he struggled over the last weeks when he wasn’t in the squad or not playing. Although he was physically available. So it wasn’t out of the blue sky.”
On Broja and Gallagher:
“They will come back for sure. When you give them on loan you give them to get better and more experienced players back. I want to have them in pre-season and in pre-season they decided what’s going on.”
On Chilwell & Hudson-Odoi:
“We are very happy Chilly is back and we are looking forward to it. We have to stay patient because it was a big injury and a long time out. Hopefully, he can reach his level quickly but he will need pre-season, patience and support. It will start from July on.
Hudson-Odoi dropped out of the squad from one day to the other. He’s in individual training. He will come back early for pre-season with Ben Chilwell.”
On how Tuchel describes the season:
“I refuse to judge the season by two penalty shootouts. If we won both, it would be one of the most succesful seasons with four titles. We lost two but it doesn’t make it less impressive what the team put in. But we’re the first to admit that it’s not the same to play a final and win a final.
So it’s a bit of an imbalance judging the season given the circumstances. We struggled with corona, long-term injuries, a war that had a big effect on our club in particular.
There’s always room for improvement but we arrived in this [FA Cup] with key players out, Mateo and N’Golo with only half a training session, with the club sanctions, there is a lot of things that are impressive. Hopefully, we can come third and that is progression.
We maybe compete against the best teams to play in this league. So from there we go. There is no need to lose sleep and think we should’ve done this and this. There is a lot of ambition in us that we are not statisfied.”
