Varane to Chelsea, Jorginho's future, Where is the rationale? FA Cup final - Our reaction
All included in our latest Chelsea FC Newsletter
Chelsea are set for their biggest match of the season tonight, and it really shouldn’t be carrying this much pressure.
Folding to Arsenal without a fight last week was massively regrettable and a win would have us a lot more stress-free tonight, but hey, it’s a Chelsea thing right!?
They literally ruined all of our moods at the weekend, they simply MUST make up for that tonight. I’ll be heading to The Bridge to watch, so might see some of you there (let me know if you’re about). If not, I’ll be posting plenty of updates, team news, videos etc on here and on Twitter.
Thomas Tuchel rightly took some criticism with some of his choices on Saturday, and this is absolutely fine and normal; nobody is perfect. And my first piece today is about that and trying to be more balanced and use rationale when giving reactions, you can check that out here.
Thomas Tuchel spoke to the press ahead of today’s match, and he was defiant in his decisions from Saturday, claiming "I have no worries or regrets about Leicester. I felt my team fighting on an extremely high level. We can improve in composure and decision making."
One of those criticisms he faced was leaving Tammy Abraham, the clubs top goal scorer of the last two seasons, out of the squad entirely, yet he selected two left backs on the bench instead.
On that subject, Tuchel said:
"It's just the amount of people I can have in a squad. We didn't want 3 numbers 9s in the squad, it is not personal. I understand his frustration. This is not the moment to explain too much."
I LOVE Tuchel and believe he has done a great job so far, but even this made me a little disgruntled I must admit. You can read exactly why here.
On the Cup Final itself, I was annoyed that it took the Chelsea players until the 80th minute to realise they were in a Cup final and losing the match to show any kind of intensity and urgency, and this is unfortunately far from the first time I have said that.
Why is there no consistency with our players mentalities? I look at that here once again.
Jorginho was one of those players who seemed to disappear during the match, and despite some fine form from him since January, his Chelsea future is still not entirely clear.
Our guy Dan McCarthy has written a detailed update on what he knows about that situation here.
Finally, a juicy bit of transfer gossip for you from our insiders, Chelsea’s interest in Raphael Varane is growing, and he may well be becoming a priority for the club now, check out my report on that here.
And on a final FINAL note - Did you guys manage to check our Podcast out last week yet? We had Kristof Terreur on the show, the Belgian reporter with direct links to the likes of Eden Hazard and Romelu Lukaku.
You guys have to check out what he said about a potential Chelsea Hazard return, and Chelsea’s pursuit of Lukaku, give it a listen while you workout or commute to work or something, trust me it’s a good one - Find it here!
See some of you tonight maybe, otherwise have a good week and let’s hope Chelsea can improve our moods!
Simon Phillips (@siphillipssport)