Christensen laments off-key Chelsea’s ‘tough loss’ to Valencia

At all of 23 years of age, Andreas Christensen has been not only the anchor of Chelsea’s three-man backline over the last two games, but on Tuesday, also the elder statesman of the centre backs as far as European experience was concerned. It was his 37th appearance in a UEFA-sanctioned competition, including all 15 of last season’s Europa League matches, more than twice as many as his defensive partners Kurt Zouma and Fikayo Tomori combined.

And for a while there, it looked like Christensen & Co were about to keep Chelsea’s first clean sheet of the season, at the seventh time of asking. Alas, it was not meant to be. (Yet another) set-piece fiasco allowed Valencia’s Rodrigo to score the only goal of the night, nullifying all of Chelsea’s solid work on the night. Christensen was not best pleased, to say the least.

“We were looking forward to having a great start to the [Champions League] campaign. We felt we were on top for most of the game. Valencia had some spells but we knew that was going to happen and we were ready for it. We kept working. Our work ethic was good all game and it felt we controlled most of it which is why it is tough to accept the goal against and the result in the end.

“We are not happy to let goals in from those situations and we know it can be costly, but now we look forward to the next game.”

After a year’s absence, Chelsea had been looking to start our Champions League campaign in the best way possible. Buoyed by the previous weekend’s result, the 5-2 hammering of Wolves at Molineux, the team set out with purpose, intent, confidence. And that made it even more frustrating that we not only failed to win, but also dropped all three points in what could be a very tightly contested group.

It just goes to show that the players must concentrate fully for the 90 minutes, lest we risk giving away more cheap goals and points.

“We are expecting tough games against all the teams which is why it is important to get points at home and challenge away from home, so it is a tough loss. Right now all the games are important for us and we have to win them, so from now on we have to get a rhythm and get the results we need.

“We had a great game at the weekend against Wolves and we try to build on that and for the majority of the game we played quite well and that is why it is so hard to accept that we lost.”

Still, it is best not to dwindle on the result too much. Learn from the mistakes, improve, and move on. Feel the rhythm!

We have the opportunity to hit back immediately this weekend against Liverpool, and maybe even ‘take our anger out’ on them.

“It was a game we felt we needed to win and we wanted to show our fans what we can do at home, especially in the Champions League. It is tough but that is what it is all about.”

-Andreas Christensen; Source: Chelsea FC

Here’s to a home victory at last on Sunday!