Fikayo Tomori believes lessons can be learned and improvements made as Chelsea surrendered a 2-0 half-time lead against Sheffield United to draw with the Blades at Stamford Bridge on Saturday afternoon.
The young defender replaced Andreas Christensen at centre-back in the only change from our win at Norwich City the previous weekend, earning his full Blues debut in the process. He looked generally assured alongside Kurt Zouma in defence, although goals conceded right at the start and end of the second period cost Frank Lampard a first win as boss on home soil.
‘We’re all angry because when you’re 2-0 up at home then the game should be safe,’ the 21-year-old said afterwards when reflecting on the result.
‘We said at half-time that we wanted to up it again but we didn’t do that. We conceded a goal really early on in the second half and it becomes very difficult when you do that. It’s disappointing but we just have to learn from it.’
‘This is Chelsea, we’re a big club and there’s a lot of expectations but we’re here to try to meet those expectations,’ he added.
‘There are high standards and when we fall below those standards then of course there will be questions. It’s not always going to be perfect but in games like today, when we’re in such a strong position and then we throw it away, it’s disappointing.’
Tomori was one of three Chelsea Academy graduates who started the game, alongside Mason Mount and two-goal Tammy Abraham, while Billy Gilmour also made his first appearance late on as a substitute.
The starting line-up was the youngest ever named by Chelsea in the Premier League and, while Tomori believes that is positive news, he insists it should only be the starting point for him and his contemporaries.
‘I’m here to try and push everyone else in the squad in my position so it was nice to get my full debut,’ he continued. ‘I’m very proud but it would have been even better for us to get the win.
‘It’s what we’ve worked for all those years to achieve. Tammy and I have been here since we were seven and so has Mason, even though he’s the year younger than us.
'We’ve gone through the whole process and we’ve seen a lot of people come and go so to get to this stage is good but obviously now we want more. We want to really cement our places in the team and do big things for this club.’