Moments before the second half got underway between Chelsea and Leicester City, Thomas Tuchel strode through the Stamford Bridge press room en route to his seat in East Stand. The German had dispensed his words of wisdom, had delivered tactical instructions, and opted to make a substitution. It was then down to his players with Tuchel banned from the touchline.
The game was goalless but Chelsea were down to ten men after Conor Gallagher had been dismissed in the opening 45 minutes. So the second period would be a true test of the Blues' character as well as their quality. Could they defy the odds? Could they recover from a setback, something they had failed to do at Elland Road a week ago?
An emphatic answer was provided: Yes. Two minutes after the restart, Raheem Sterling put Chelsea ahead coach. The summer signing, recruited from Man City for £47.5million, whipped a shot toward the top corner from 20 yards and via a deflection, it beat Danny Ward.
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A second followed after the hour mark as Reece James delivered a low cross toward the back post and Sterling was on hand – as he so often was during his Manchester City days – to finish from close range. The Chelsea supporters inside Stamford Bridge lept to their feet. The improbable had been made possible.
If only it were that easy with Chelsea; a club that is able to create drama like few others. Three minutes after their two-goal advantage had been established, Harvey Barnes reduced it to one as he did well to make space from the otherwise imperious Thiago Silva and fire beyond Edouard Mendy at the near post.
Again, Chelsea's resolve would be tested. A man down and under huge pressure, each player had to push themselves hard, run the extra yards, and commit to every challenge. It wasn't easy – the heat certainly didn't help – but constant Leicester attacks were repelled.
Silva made five tackles; he truly is the grandmaster of top-level defending. Cesar Azpilicueta, introduced for Mount in that half-time change, registered a team-high six clearances. Jorginho covered a huge amount of ground before being replaced by Mateo Kovacic. Ruben Loftus-Cheek won header after header. Kai Havertz battled for every ball forward. And Sterling added the touch of quality.
There were inevitable mistakes made but Mendy produced a string of fine stops when called upon. And when the fourth official indicated there would be four added minutes, a huge roar went around Stamford Bridge.
With no chance of finding the back of the net, Havetz became Leicester's chief antagoniser. He deliberately kicked the ball away when retreating from an offside position, blocked quick restarts, and then went down with cramp – but only after Jorginho screamed for him to do so from the bench.
It all helped Chelsea hang on and get over the line. And Tuchel was a pleased man at full time. "We did everything to have the chance [to win] and the mentality was very good," he said. "I think we started very well, but I think we can be more aggressive and be more in the box if we are so dominant like the first 20 minutes. We should be able to create more chances, deliveries and half-chances.
“I felt that we maybe didn’t smell how big the chance was to put the game to bed with one or two goals in the first minutes. Of course, we created a huge chance in transition and we had a penalty and then no penalty.
“There are things to improve but after 25 minutes, it was just necessary to survive first of all and then to have our head clear for second half and be ready to sacrifice and wait for the chance to get all three points that we did.”
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