James on sticking together to make things right
27 FEB 2023
Reece James has accepted that Chelsea are not where we should be at this moment in time but insists the players and coaching staff are working hard to improve our fortunes.
The Blues were edged out 2-0 by Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday, with second-half goals from Oliver Skipp and Harry Kane ensuring Spurs claimed all three points in north London.
James, who captained the side following Thiago Silva’s withdrawal in the first half through injury, fronted up after the game and conceded that our position in the table isn’t good enough but also explained how the players are planning to work through this spell and improve.
‘We knew coming to Tottenham would be a tough game and our aim coming into the game was to win,’ Reece stated after the match.
‘Conceding so early into the second half didn’t help with our confidence but all we can do is work through this.
‘We’re sticking together, we’re working hard and hopefully with time we can get to where we need to be.’
The England international knows more than most at how high the standards are at Chelsea, having progressed through the Academy ranks and being used to winning trophies, and he says that the team must ignore any outside noise and just focus on getting back to winning ways quickly.
‘The media and everyone on the outside makes a lot of noise about the form that we’re in,’ the defender added. ‘We know where we are in the table and we know that the results haven’t been up to standard.
‘It’s something that we are working on as a team and as a group as I’ve said earlier, we are sticking together to put this right.
‘We’re not where we want to be and expectations at this club are very high. A lot has happened this season, we’ve had the change of ownership, new coaching staff come in and we’ve got a lot of new players and it’s not always easy to adapt straightway.
‘It’s tough but we are working and hopefully things can turn around soon. We have to buy into what we stand for, we’re all working hard and hopefully better times are around the corner.’
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Koulibaly disappointed with second-half showing
27 FEB 2023
Kalidou Koulibaly offered no excuses after Chelsea were defeated by Tottenham on Sunday afternoon, with the defender suggesting that the timing of the goals conceded was a key factor for our derby loss.
Chelsea’s unbeaten record at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was ended by two strikes in the second half by Oliver Skipp and Harry Kane with no reply, as Graham Potter’s side suffered a third defeat in a row in all competitions.
Skipp’s goal in particular, a long-range strike that went in off the underside of the crossbar, came just 19 seconds after the restart despite Chelsea having dominated for large spells of the first half.
Koulibaly felt that was a key factor in seeing the game swing in the favour of the hosts, who secured the points late on as Kane tapped home.
‘We’re very disappointed,’ Kalidou said shortly after the final whistle. ‘We came into this game wanting to win like we always do. We knew it would be a difficult match, it’s a London derby and that Tottenham would come into the game with a lot of power and a lot of support behind them with the home crowd.
‘In the first half, I thought we did well and they didn’t cause us too many problems but in the second half we conceded so early and this didn’t help us.
‘They got the second goal to kill off the game and yes, we are all really disappointed in the dressing room. We have to stick together, continue to work and try and get out of this situation.’
The defender praised the support of the travelling Chelsea fans in north London and accepted that the Blues need to improve quickly to get back to winning ways, with the Senegal international calling on fans and players alike to ‘stick together’ as we look to put an end to this bad run when Leeds and Borussia Dortmund visit Stamford Bridge this week in the Premier League and Champions League respectively.
‘We know we need to improve,’ Koulibaly added honestly. ‘We are trying a lot of things in training and during the game we are trying to find the right combinations to score.
‘It’s not happening for us at the moment but when that happens, we have to make sure we keep the opposition at zero [goals]. We didn’t quite get the balance because Spurs got a second goal and that made things very difficult.
‘It is tough for everyone right now. For the players, for the supporters but we must stick together and we are going to work really hard to get out of this situation. We have two big games coming up at Stamford Bridge and we need to work hard and prepare for those now.’
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