Tuchel happy with win, players’ relentless focus on momentous day for Chelsea

There’s never a boring day at Chelsea, we like to say, but even by the standards of the last two decades, the last few days have been something else. Focusing on just the football was already a tall order, and that was before Roman Abramovich announced that he was selling the club. The decision was communicated officially less than an hour before kick-off against Luton Town in the FA Cup.

Abramovich’s arrival in 2003 changed not only the fortunes of Chelsea Football Club, but it shifted the entire professional football landscape. His departure will hopefully have a much less drastic effect. We do have some time to worry about that, and in the meantime, we still have to focus on our jobs, which for the coaches and players means playing and winning football matches.

And Luton Town certainly were hoping to become part of this occasion and insert themselves into the narrative on Wednesday night, hoping to ride a bit of Magic of the Cup™ pixie-dust against Big Bad Chelsea. Twice they took the lead, but twice we fought back before taking the lead ourselves, fittingly for this day of days via the boot of the club-record signing.

Tuchel was happy enough with the performance and dedication of his cobbled-together lineup, which featured exactly two defenders, and one of whom was having a very bad day as well, even.

“There were a lot of players out, more or less no defensive players, and we were in a completely new set-up in a different competition There was some noise, of course, around the club throughout the day. So it was not so easy to focus.

“But we did very well I think. We conceded straight away but had big chances to not only equalise but to go ahead. Then we concede another one and in the second half we stepped up, pushed, were relentless, never impatient, and we deserved to win. We didn’t over-expect from us and we played a very humble match I think, very seriously.”

“[We] focused on the preparation only on sports and maybe some players are more affected and some less. In the end, we managed to focus and grow into the game. We found the key to winning it.”

-Thomas Tuchel; source: Football.London

Whatever the future may hold, we can hopefully keep finding solid footing and confidence in our football, and keep pushing for trophies and greatness.