THE MANAGER’S VIEW
CHELSEA captain Cesar Azpilicueta admitted the FA Cup final loss to Leicester City was “hard to take” – but warned the Foxes that Thomas Tuchel’s side were determined to gain swift revenge.
The sides meet again tomorrow night (8.15pm kick-off) in a crucial Premier League showdown at Stamford Bridge.
Leicester and Chelsea are third and fourth respectively going into their penultimate league fixture of the season.
They are battling it out with Liverpool for the two remaining Champions League spots.
Chelsea, meanwhile, are also in the final of this season’s Champions League, in which they face Manchester City on May 29.
The West London side’s defeat to Leicester came on the back of a surprise 1-0 home loss to Arsenal.
“We were not at the level of the performances that we have shown in the last few weeks and it’s up to us to raise our levels and to come back because we have three games in front of us,” Azpilicueta told Chelsea’s official website.
“Of course, we are very disappointed but we don’t have a lot of time. We have to recover and go again on Tuesday.
“We have lost the last two games, two important games.
“We have missed two opportunities and we cannot let more opportunities go.
“We cannot change the results, but we have to be humble, to accept that we can be better, pick ourselves up and go again, because we have three crucial games for the club, for us, for the fans and we are determined to win them.
“It’s hard to take but in less than three days we are back and playing again, so we have to recover and go for it.
“Tuesday is a massive game for our Champions League qualification.
“We are in a position where everything is in our hands and now is the moment, the last week of the Premier League.
“We want to be in the top four and qualify for the Champions League and we have to show it on the pitch.”
Azpilicueta had a chance to open the scoring for Chelsea in the first half against Leicester - but was just unable to direct his header on target from close range.
After Tielemans struck, Chelsea were denied by Kasper Schmeichel, who pulled off two brilliant saves from Ben Chilwell and Mason Mount.
And former City full-back Chilwell also saw a last-gasp equaliser ruled out for offside following a VAR check.
“It’s really hard,” said 31-year-old
Spanish international defender Azpilicueta.
“We had ambitions to win it and unfortunately we couldn’t do it.
“Of course we are disappointed, it was not our best game.
“We didn’t give them many opportunities but obviously they took one.
“We were not clinical enough. We had our chances.
“In the first half an hour we were better, we had a few situations where we could have scored and the game could change, but we didn’t.
“The game didn’t have many chances. We had a few situations in the first half where we could have scored, we didn’t take them, we didn’t make the right decision, and when it is 0-0 and the game goes on it is normal the first goal can win it.
“Unfortunately, this time we were on the other side of that.”