Thomas Tuchel’s first two games in charge of Chelsea were at home against teams below us on the leaderboard, resulting in a goalless draw and a 2-0 win. Last night’s game against Tottenham, a place ahead, was seen as the “most true” test, especially since we hadn’t beaten any team above us in the table all season. The Spurs have been fighting, but it is also difficult to bet against Mourinho in such important games. And Chelsea hasn’t been very far from Stamford Bridge.
The score may not have been very impressive in the end, but Chelsea’s 1-0 win in the new Three Point Lane Tottenham Hotspur Stadium presented an impressive game, especially in the first half, and then a little “suffering” needed to see a third match without conceding a goal.
The only goal of the match came from Jorginho, who has played every minute for Tuchel so far, and looks like a reborn midfielder at the moment. Perhaps it is appropriate that he also changed his iconic penalty kick technique, abandoning his usual sequence of elaborate jumping jumps a la Brazilians of the 1990s, and deciding to keep it simple and seek power.
As he explained later, this decision was motivated by his own achievement and desire to improve, having failed three times this season, after having failed only once (in non-eliminatory situations) in his previous career.
“I felt good before the penalty. I kept working on it, I kept training, so I was feeling confident. I changed the technique because I felt it could be better and it worked. You saw the result. “
Although Jorginho’s partnership with Mateo Kovačić seems integral at the center of Tuchel’s 3-4-3 configuration, we are still only three games away from the new regime and we cannot draw many decisive conclusions about which may be the best eleven favorites – especially with N ‘Kanté goal injured most of the time. In fact, we may not even have one, considering his history at Paris Saint-Germain.
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Chris Lee – Chelsea FC / Chelsea FC’s photo via Getty Images
The emphasis now is on learning and applying new ideas anyway, which Chelsea seems to be accepting well – probably helped by the similarity of some of those ideas to what came before, whether from Conte or Sarri or even Lampard.
“The message he is giving about what he wants is clear. We had our minds open to understand what he wanted as quickly as possible, as we had no time to waste.
“When you have a group of people who are open to new ideas, to learn, to improve and everyone with the same goal, it’s easy to work. This group was humble in accepting what he was coming to give us.
“We need to remain humble and never think that it is enough. We didn’t do anything. When you feel comfortable, it’s a time to give up. We need to stay calm, keep working hard and then the results are a consequence of what we do every day. “
-Jorginho; source: Chelsea FC
Although we are still clearly in the “honeymoon period” that we spend almost every time there is a managerial change – and we certainly have a good part of it – it is refreshing to see how effective Tuchel has been in getting ideas for players. Of course, there is much room for improvement, but normal growth pains have been minimized. A welcome change, for sure.