Thomas Tuchel reserved special praise for Hakim Ziyech's opener, which saw him curl an outrageous looping shot into the back of the net.
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Chelsea head coach Thomas Tuchel was all praise for his side after their Premier League win over Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday (January 23).
Goals from Hakim Ziyech and Thiago Silva were enough to give the Blues a 2-0 win over Spurs. It was their first league win of 2022.
And Tuchel reserved special praise for Ziyech’s opener, which saw the Moroccan curl an outrageous looping shot into the back of the net.
“I was right behind it. I had the feeling that it was a bit too high but it dropped in the right second and it was a brilliant goal,” Tuchel said.
“The build-up was good, the movement around Hakim to bring him into this position, the effort from Callum (Hudson-Odoi) before the goal, the dribbling and switch of side around the opponents’ box, the overlap by Azpi and the shot was of course brilliant.
“It was one of the very nice goals so far. I’m very happy because he deserves it first of all today and it was a very important goal to get the lead.”
He also praised Romelu Lukaku’s performance. The Belgian notably missed a few chances but did prove a useful outlet and pressed hard when the chance came.
“It was a very good team performance from him. He (Lukaku) was absolutely reliable and put in a huge effort. It’s a bit the story of our team.
“I have the feeling that we work really hard off the ball and sometimes are maybe not in full confidence or a calm state of mind when it comes to the opponents’ box.
“But the effort is something we define as a benchmark and a standard for us, so he gave everything in terms of work-rate.”
Aside from Chelsea’s work rate, one of the notable things about the win was their formation change. In this game, Tuchel tried a 4-1-4-1 formation with Jorginho the lone deep midfielder.
Mason Mount and Mateo Kovacic played as advanced midfielders, whereas Ziyech and Hudson-Odoi played as inverted wingers but their starting position was wider than expected from Chelsea’s forwards.
Given Chelsea are without first-choice wingbacks Reece James and Ben Chilwell, Thomas Tuchel believes a change in formation could be something they try in the future too.
“It’s one way forward. We tried a 4-1-4-1 formation today because we tried a 4-4-2 against them in the first match which gave us an advantage and then they reacted to it in the second match so we thought maybe it could be an approach to give the players a new solution.
“It gives us more options than only to play a 3-4-3 but we don’t decide now.”
He also stressed on how important it was to go into the winter break with a win. Chelsea are 10 points behind league leaders Manchester City but an upturn in form before the break was imperative.
“Now we go into a break and it was important to go into this break with a victory. There’s no doubt about it because if you don’t have the results and the performances you want, there’s no substitution for a win and that feeling.
“You cannot produce it artificially so we needed this but we needed also to do things better and keep on believing. The guys are very tired now because it was a long run but it was important for us.”
