Sometimes, in football, the result is not what the performance deserves emphasised Thomas Tuchel after Saturday afternoon’s 1-1 draw with Burnley.
The Lancastrians ended our recent winning run with a second-half equaliser after Kai Havertz had headed Chelsea into a half-time lead, but the fact the two points were let slip was not the result of anything fundamentally wrong with our approach to the game decided the head coach afterwards.‘Burnley were very lucky to draw but that's football,’ declared Tuchel.‘We were very lucky to escape with a clean sheet at Brentford. That's why everybody loves the game.‘I stick with my feeling from the sideline and I have proof from all data that we did a fantastic match. I liked to be attitude. I liked the intensity. I liked the concentration level. These are what you need after seven wins in a row.
‘We came from an away game in the Champions League and we played a team like Burnley who always puts long balls into your box and you must keep them out of your box, and on that level we collected the first and second balls. You need to do so much invisible work as a team on such a high level to control a match like this, to create so many chances.‘So it was a fantastic effort and fantastic performance. I'm super happy. It can happen in football that sometimes, unfortunately like today, somebody else steals some points. Like I said, we have been lucky in Brentford to walk away with a clean sheet. Burnley are lucky today to get the result but it happens sometimes.’Tuchel also spoke about Ross Barkley whom he brought into the team in an altered attacking shape. Barkley played well but missed a good chance to make it 2-0 as he was about to be substituted, but as the boss pointed out, it was far from the only good opportunity the team had.‘If you're watching the training then you see that Ross deserved to start,’ Tuchel said, ‘and we changed a bit the shape in the front three today and played with a number 10 position behind the number six for Burnley. We saw a perfect position for Ross to start today. He waited a long time and he had a huge impact on our matches when he came on.
‘So he had a good match, with maybe match point also on his left foot. Before that we had a huge chance with Callum and before then a really big chance with Thiago Silva. If we got a second one, there was a big chance to score a third or fourth one, then there will definitely be no comeback possible for Burnley.’