Chelsea: Tuchel opens up on Kante's injury struggles
Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel is still learning about his new set of players - and whilst it wasn’t always pretty against Barnsley, some stood out. The Blues edged a 1-0 win at Oakwell via Tammy Abraham’s second half goal to reach the quarter-finals.
Abraham also made a crucial block at the other end whilst under-fire goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga put in a solid display after being given a first-team recall for the Cup.
After the game, the duo were both singled out for a praise with Reece James and Billy Gilmour also name-dropped by their manager as key components of a fortunate win.
James took his chance to impress the new manager having been in and out of the side since Frank Lampard’s departure, whilst Gilmour underlined why he was rated so highly by the past regime.
“We were lucky twice,” Tuchel told his post-match press conference.
“Kepa saved us in the first half and Tammy saved us in the second. We struggled today but in the cup it’s sometimes like this. I don’t want to be too hard on the guys.
“Clearly yes [Abraham was crucial]. With his goal, you can’t leave out the pass from Billy and the run from Reece. It was a very nice goal and Tammy was on the end of a good combination.
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After criticising his side for being too passive, Tuchel also added: “I don’t want to be too harsh with the players because I can admit it’s also not easy, we made a lot of changes, the pitch is very, very difficult to play.
“It’s like this, sometimes you have to accept, step up and sometimes in cup games you take your stuff and go to the plane and be happy you’re in the quarter-finals.”
The Blues will face Sheffield United at home in the quarter-finals after the draw was conducted before their game last night.
Everton will host Manchester City, Leicester City will take on Manchester United and Bournemouth will play Southampton in the other fixtures.