Goalkeeper Mendy and left-back Chilwell played starring roles as Chelsea edged past Brentford in their Premier League clash.
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Chelsea continued their positive start to the Premier League season, registering a crucial 1-0 victory over Brentford on Saturday. After the match, Thomas Tuchel highlighted the importance of the performances from left-back Ben Chilwell and goalkeeper Edouard Mendy. The Blues registered a crucial victory in the west London derby and it was Ben Chilwell who got the decisive goal right at the end of the first half. The left wing-back has had to be patient for his opportunities this season, finding himself left out by the head coach at the start of the campaign. But, he has been impressive since finding a way into the team, with his third goal in as many games for club and country. He also scored in the last match at Southampton and for England during the international break.
However, the German is not surprised by Chilwell’s recent form, but more pleased to see him get back to his best shape. “I’m very happy but it was necessary,” said Tuchel. “We need everybody and we need of course a player like him in his top shape, but you cannot force things.
“I was very honest, I felt him a little bit tired, I felt him mentally a bit drained and it needed time. So now he got his chance against Southampton and took it and he was able to score and play for England which gave him another lot of confidence and today he was strong again.
“I see him in good shape and it’s also necessary, we need him in this shape, we need everybody. We have many games in many competitions to play and I’m happy and of course this run of goals gives him a lot of confidence.”
Tuchel then pointed out the impressive performance shown by his goalkeeper Mendy. “He was very strong throughout the whole match. We managed to keep a lot of pressure away from him during the first 60-65 minutes but they were still there.
“They were always dangerous on set pieces, they put a lot of free-kicks, corners, free-kicks into your box so it’s a constant threat and he was very strong and very concentrated also in our build-up play, a very good performance.
“Of course, the last 20 minutes the match turned into a cup game, they took a lot of risks and got a lot of bodies into our box and we could not keep them away from shooting and having the big chances so it was absolutely decisive to escape with the clean sheet.”
He also opened up about the reason behind taking off Romelu Lukaku during the match. “I just felt him a bit tired. Honestly today I thought we did altogether a very strong 65 or 70 minutes, including Romelu and Timo,” he added.
“I’m not concerned, I felt him a bit tired and then isolated because we were together as a block defending too deep and both of them, Timo and Romelu, were a bit too far away to help us to escape the pressure. So that was a bit of a problem today, but no concern.
“Normally the best thing is if he scores but he is very unselfish at the moment looking for Timo in good situations and when we had them in those situations there were some close offside decisions. So there is no need to worry.”
