Izuchukwu Okosi
By Izuchukwu Okosi
Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel claimed his Chelsea side ‘stole three points’ with a 2-1 win at Watford and were ‘lucky’ to keep their place as the Premier League leaders.
Super Eagles of Nigeria striker Emmanuel Dennis scored Watford’s only goal at Vicarge Road in an inspiring display but it was not enough to stop the Blues from claiming a victory.
The game was delayed for 35 minutes as a Watford required medical attention but was later stabilised.
The supporter was stabilised and then taken to hospital, but after it resumed Mason Mount gave the Blues the lead just before the half-hour mark.
However, Dennis who is poised for a recall to Nigeria’s national team fired in an equaliser into the bottom corner just before half-time, but Blues substitute Hakim Ziyech finished high into the net to ensure they returned to winning ways after their draw against Manchester United on Sunday.
But Tuchel claimed Chelsea were ‘absolutely’ not ready to face Claudio Ranieri’s men and blamed himself for not being able to help prepare the players – in his eyes – in the best way possible.
“We stole three points. We don’t have to talk around it. For the first time it feels like a lucky win,’ Tuchel told Amazon Prime Video after the game.
“That’s not us. We were absolutely not ready today for this match. I missed maybe to find the right approach to make my team ready.
”We had the break due to very sad circumstances – hopefully the person is better. Even this break after the first 11 minutes did not change our approach. We did not cope with the pressure, with the first ball, second ball.
”We had a lot of changes but too many faults. It did not get better. The only thing we could do was hang in there and focus on the easy things. It was a lucky win.’ Tuchel repeated similar sentiments in his post-match press conference, insisting his side were ‘very sloppy’ and ‘underperformed’ as a unit.
”(It was a) very sloppy and it was a very unusual performance for us,’ Tuchel said after the game. ‘I had the feeling we were not ready. ‘ I have to get the team ready and obviously I didn’t prepare them for what was coming because for the first time we were completely underperforming as a team.
”We did not cope well with the first balls, we did not cope well with the pressure and we did not cope well with the second balls.’
He added: ” It was a very unusual performance for us so I think today that I will not like to focus long on this match because we play on Saturday again and there are some reasons that did not make it easy for us.
”Watford played with a lot of enthusiasm and we struggled in the basics. I don’t know why but it was like this. We are in this together and we got a lucky win today.’
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
