ANDREAS: BIG DRAMA? NO BOTHER

ANDREAS CHRISTENSEN has finally got to grips with the Chelsea soap opera.

The Denmark centre-back has become a key figure in one of football’s meanest defences, which will be key to the Blues achieving major success this season.

Manager Thomas Tuchel is just a clean sheet away from reaching the Champions League final and, while the strikers have struggled to score goals, Chelsea’s defence is tight enough to keep out opponents. Christensen, 25, has helped keep 11 clean sheets in his last 12 starts and the team is flourishing under Tuchel, with an FA Cup final to come and a top-four place looking likely.

But upheaval at Stamford Bridge is nothing new to Christensen (in action against Real Madrid, top), who has had four managers in as many years since returning from a loan spell in Germany. He said: “I’ve been here almost nine, 10 years. I’ve never doubted my decision and I’ve always been here for the long run. I accept that the club sometimes changes managers, and that can make it hard to always be in the team.

“After the loan spell, I came back and played well and, since then, it’s been a bit in and out. But it’s nice at the moment to play back-to-back games. “Confidence hasn’t always been my problem. It’s just sometimes I’ve been in and out and it has been difficult. “But I feel like every time I get a few games back to back, confidence grows and you get into the team’s rhythm, which makes it easier.”

Chelsea (Tuchel, left) should have won a game they dominated in Madrid, but had to settle for a draw, albeit with a precious away goal.

And Christensen (with Eden Hazard, above) is confident ahead of next week’s second leg. He added: “We’re all feeling comfortable, not just the three of us (centre-backs), or the back five, but the whole team. We feel confident in our way of defending and know we are, on paper, a very difficult team to score against.”