Tuchel praises Chelsea players in tough, important, high-level win over West Ham

The scoreboard may have read only 1-0, but that’s a pretty standard scoreline as Thomas Tuchel continues to bring sexy boring boring Chelsea back. Party like it’s 2004!

Chelsea had multiple chances to make things much more comfortable, including a sitter from Timo Werner who had given Chelsea lead the just before half-time, but in the end, we collected our 10th clean sheet in Tuchel’s 14 Premier League matches — equalling the record for a new manager — and created a three-point gap to West Ham themselves in fifth. With Liverpool dropping points earlier today, it’s been a good weekend for us.

“It was a six pointer. The win was well deserved. We played amazing in the first half. We did not come out of the dressing room with the same intensity as in the first half. We suffered a bit with their intensity, but I think we deserved to win. It’s a very important win. [...] Today we played at a high, high level against a strong opponent.”

It had been a tough week for the club and the players, on and off the pitch, and this is just the first massively important game in a series of massively important games from now until the end of the season.

With two trophies on the line, plus a top-four finish, it’s going to be an intense month, to say the least. And there’s only a couple days to recover for the first leg of our Champions League semifinal against Real Madrid on Tuesday. Confidence will be key.

“We only have two days to recover. We need to be very careful now in the recovery process. It’s clearly something very special. They’re the biggest club in the last 10 years of the Champions League. To arrive with the confidence and the trust in ourselves that we can perform in these matches is a good feeling.”

-Thomas Tuchel; source: BBC

Clear eyes, full hearts.