A Hakim Ziyech goal late in the second half was enough for Chelsea to make a winning return to the league after the Club World Cup win.
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Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel was a relieved man after the Blues scraped a hard-fought 1-0 Premier League win over Crystal Palace.
A Hakim Ziyech goal late in the second half was enough for Chelsea to make a winning return to the league after the Club World Cup win.
“I know that we can play better, I know that we want to play better,” Tuchel said. “We were at least solid defensively, we were disciplined.
“We told the team at half-time not to lose faith and to keep on going like in a cup game, maybe this one chance will come again and it is decisive.
Magician at work! ?#CryChe pic.twitter.com/40RNWGhPwF
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) February 19, 2022
Keep on believing, don’t to crazy stuff and don’t take risks to allow transitions for the opponent. The first chance we allowed Crystal Palace was a clear foul on Christian.
“Okay the last one is in added time when we can defend better, but it was the only chance. We have a clean sheet and it is not the first 1-0 we have.”
“We came from 30 degrees heat and had six players with a cold from the air conditioning on the plane, guys coming from the jet lag that they had in Abu Dhabi.
“There was no player who slept well in Abu Dhabi because of the temperature and the time difference. If you think we had a normal week to prepare I can just tell you it is not like this.
“We try to survive at the moment and you can see it. There is a lot of pressure going on if you go to the Club World Cup and if you want to win it for Chelsea.
“The players put a lot of pressure on themselves and we didn’t play in the Premier League for four weeks. It’s a huge, strange mix of a lot of reasons why I personally did not over-expect today performance-wise.
“Then we had some issues yesterday in training that meant Azpi and Callum went out from training. So this is where we are and it is like this.”
Tuchel further spoke about whether or not they can still catch Manchester City atop the league table. He didn’t throw in the towel but conceded plenty of improvement was needed.
“Unfortunately we don’t play them again. They look very strong at the moment. It is what it is and they got a huge player in the winter to make their squad even stronger.
“We will not give in, I will not tell you today that it is impossible to catch them. But there’s no other way than to improve our game, to improve our style and to win game after game after game, to start winning in consecutive games.”
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