Chelsea news: It hasn’t been the ideal preparation, says Azpilicueta

Chelsea captain Cesar Azpilicueta has opened up about preparing for matches amidst the Covid-19 situation ahead of their game against Aston Villa. Like many teams in the Premier League, Chelsea FC have been troubled by the recent spate of Covid-19 cases, culminating in the request for the trip to Wolves to be postponed following a growing list of absentees. That was ultimately turned down by the authorities and a depleted Blues side went on to draw 0-0 at Molineux. Thereby they dropped points in the league for the third time this month. That result saw Chelsea fall six points behind leaders in Manchester City.

On the other hand, Aston Villa, have not played for 12 days after an outbreak of their own. “Of course it hasn’t been the ideal preparation for the games,” said the Spaniard recently, according to their club’s website. “We know that during the season we have to cope with injuries and now for nearly two years we have had Covid-19, which brings uncertainty and a lot of thoughts about the situation.

“With the Premier League and the clubs, we try to make a safe environment for everybody but it’s true that in the last couple of games we had injuries plus the Covid situation. We went through it and we do what we are told but I think it was very unclear with some games postponed and others not. We didn’t get the full information and it’s a pity that some teams were going through different situations than others. We had people coming back from injuries so it’s a bit risky and we have still half of the season to go ahead of us.”

Azpilicueta: It’s been difficult

Chelsea were leading the pack in the Premier League table for a long time, but the tricky winter period has begun to cause problems for Thomas Tuchel and his players. The Blues have won just two of the past six Premier League outings. 

“It’s been difficult,” admitted Azpilicueta. “We went through a tough period in terms of missing key players, of results and a bit of luck missing in games where we deserved more. In others, the performances were not good enough but we got the result, which sometimes covers it. During the season, you cannot be every single game at your best but you need the results in those kind of games. We are ambitious and we want to win every single game so of course we are disappointed when we don’t do that.

“In the last two games, we recovered the solidity a bit more even in difficult conditions. Even though in Wolverhampton we didn’t get the three points, we deserved more than the point we got. We kept a clean sheet which we didn’t do for a while so that was important and hopefully we can start building again and get the momentum.”

Five successive starts in all competitions have seen the skipper return to the side to steady the backline. It has also seen him get to 449 appearances for the club since his arrival from Marseille in 2012. “I’m really proud,” he said. “Numbers are numbers and they’re nice to achieve but honestly I couldn’t believe when I arrived here that I could achieve all that I have in a Chelsea shirt.

“What it gives you is more ambition. When you taste the success, you want to win more and more so of course it’s an amazing number that is approaching but I take it like one more. I want to taste more trophies and hopefully we can do that.”