Yahoo Finance Thomas Tuchel: Chelsea ‘stole’ three points with ‘lucky’ win over Watford that manager is keen to forget
Thomas Tuchel delivered a brutally honest assessment as Chelsea survived a scare at Watford.
Hakim Ziyech’s second-half strike secured a 2-1 win that kept the European champions at the top of the Premier League. But Tuchel laid into his players after sloppy performance at Vicarage Road – insisting they “stole” three points.
Mason Mount had fired Chelsea ahead against the run of play in the first-half before Emmanuel Dennis’ equaliser before the break.
Tuchel sent on Ziyech for the injured Trevoh Chalobah and the Morocco winger proved super sub with a 72nd minute winner.
“That’s not us,” the manager said. “We were absolutely not ready today for this match. I maybe missed finding the right approach to make my team ready.
“We had made a lot of changes but also too many faults. It did not get better. The only thing we could do was hang in there and focus on the easy things. It was a lucky win.
“We stole three points. We don’t have to talk around it. For the first time it feels like a lucky win.”
Tuchel named a much-changed team with N’Golo Kante, Reece James and Ben Chilwell all out injured. Jorginho was not considered fit enough to start, while Thiago Silva was rested.
But the Chelsea manager refused to use the absent players as an excuse.
“I see this totally as an exception from the rule,” he added. “I will not insist too long on this match because it’s so unusual for us to play like this.”
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