Chelsea took on familiar foes in London rivals Crystal Palace with a place in the FA cup final up for grabs.
Tuchel’s men headed to Wembley with mixed feelings after exiting the UCL on Tuesday after a brilliant fight back to come from a 3-1 deficit to equaling the tie in regulation time at the Santiago Bernabeu before losing out in extra time after Karim Benzema scored his fourth goal of the tie over two legs.
The game at Wembley started out with Palace preserved by many as the underdogs taking the initiative and having a go at the blues before the game settled down into a more balanced affair.
There wasn’t much action in the first half with both teams playing cautiously when in possession and the best chance of the half fell to Kouyate of Crystal after a free kick was sent into the Chelsea box with the rebound falling at the feet of the Senegalese who struck the ball beautifully, drawing a fine save from his countryman Mendy.
The highlight of the first half on the part of the blues was losing Kovaciç to injury and every Chelsea fan would hope the Croat doesn’t sit out of action for long.
The second half saw the blues inject more pace and got their reward after Kai’s cross got deflected into the path of Ruben Loftus-Cheek who sliced across the ball sending it into the top right corner via a slight deflection off Joachim Andersen for the first Chelsea goal. Palace sought an equalizer and Patrick Viera reacted to the goal, bringing on attacking reinforcements in Michael Olise and Benteke with the hope of pulling level.
That hope was soon dashed after some intelligent play by Timo Werner down the left of the blues attack with the German playing a beat one-two with Mount before the England international took a beautiful touch, set himself up and then side footed a lovely finish into the bottom right hand corner to hand Chelsea a 2-0 lead heading into the final dozen minutes of the match.
Tuchel made wholesome changes after that goal including taking off Mount with Lukaku back in action after missing out of action for two weeks and the Belgian missed a very good chance to register his 12th goal for Chelsea this season.
Chelsea head to Wembley again to take on Liverpool in a final, this time the FA cup final later on in May.
Here are 5 lessons learned as Tuchel wins his straight 10th semi-final tie;
James settles in back three
Reece James has often played as the RWB in Tuchel’s preferred system of a back three but since Christensen’s poor showing on the right of the back three against Madrid in the first leg of the UCL quarter final tie, Tuchel has reinstated Recce James into that role after having played there a couple of times last season most notably against Leicester city.
James’ pace and power holds him in good stead when defending against attackers outside the box and coming up against a tricky winger like Zaha, the former Wigan defender showed just why he’s considered a key man for this Chelsea team. Big heights for RJ!
Jorginho’s sloppiness
In the first half of the match at Wembley, Tuchel’s frustration down over at the touchline was evident and much of his frustration was down to Jorginho’s sloppy play in dangerous position.
The Brazilian born midfielder more often than not took too many touches even while he was closed down by two or sometimes three Palace players in a congested midfield leaving Tuchel to scream his lung out for the Italian international to release the ball with fewer touches to help facilitate a more free flowing transition from the defence to the attack.
Much of Jorginho’s strength has to do with his quick passing and positional play to help generate fast attacks but here, the Chelsea number 5 struggled with his touches and opponents might begin to earmark him as a trigger to press in forthcoming matches.
It has to be noted that the Brazilian doesn’t have the required strength and pace to hold off makers in close quarters. Jorgi has to step up the pace.
Money Mase on the Money once more
One name that evokes as much joy and controversy in Chelsea fan quarters has to be the name of Mason Mount. The England international has often been topic of deliberation with many praising the Cobham graduate while few still feel he doesn’t warrant that much hype.
Here against Palace just like in recent matches since the second half of the Madrid tie at the Bridge, Mason played as a number “10” once more and influenced play with his half positions in the first half causing problems for the palace midfielders to pick up. His pressing off the ball also benefitted Chelsea with some high ball wins resulting in dangerous attacks for the blues with one instance of where he dispossessed former Chelsea youngster, Marc Guehi resulting in a promising Chelsea attack.
Mount was pushed further sideways in the second half with Ruben playing on the right of the midfield and Mount on the left with Jorginho sitting the deepest, Mount found space after some brilliant interchange of passes with Werner before passing the ball into the bottom corner for Chelsea’s second goal.
Money Mase as he’s often called amongst Chelsea supporters remains Chelsea’s most influential attacker with the highest goal contribution of over 24 goals this season.
Werner’s resurgence
This is the Easter period, a period significant in the Christian Faith for the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and Timo Werner definitely looks like he’s resurrected his almost dead Chelsea career.
The German attacker has experienced a resurgence in the most vital part of the season as every game now has huge significance in a club’s plan.
Timo Werner scores two goals against Southampton when he could have gotten four on another day and his brilliant performance against the Saints meant he started in Madrid and he once again got on the scoresheet before his man of the match performance here against Palace.
Werner’s pace down the left side of attack caused problems for the Southampton defenders and he did the exact same against Madrid and here against Palace, Werner ensured to keep the duo of Andersen and Guehi honest with his constant runs meaning the young duo had to keep their concentration at optimum.
Timo registered the assist for Mount’s goal and should have gotten another if Lukaku had finished from 6 yards out.
Ruben takes hold of his Chelsea career
A player of huge of talent and ability, it has been a shame seeing RLC hasn’t fulfilled his early career promises with injuries and inconsistency a major problem for the Englishman.
Tuchel has entrusted more responsibilities to RLC in recent matches and in an interview prior to the match, Tuchel did mention how much more RLC could offer and pushed the midfielder to do more.
RLC heeded to the words of his manager and he did turn up big time for Chelsea with a very well taken strike to put the team one goal ahead and his overall performance must have pleased Tuchel.
The injury suffered by Kovaciç is sure to create more opportunities for RLC and with performances like this, the former Palace man might just save his Chelsea career with a summer move already mooted for midfield reinforcements like Declan Rice and Tchoumeni. RLC to the rescue!
Player Ratings: Mendy 8/10, Azpilicueta 8/10, James 9/10, Christensen 8/10, Rudiger 8/10, Alonso 8/10, Jorginho 6/10, Kovaciç (subbed early) Mount 10/10, Werner 9/10, Kai 6/10.
Subs: RLC 9/10, Lukaku 6/10, Ziyech 6/10, Kante 7/10.
Chelsea return to premier league action when they face London rivals Arsenal on Wednesday as the battle for top four continues!
