Thomas Tuchel must trust jorginho because Jorginho stepped up to take the penalty
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!According to football.london, Chelsea had toiled away against West Ham United for 85 arduous minutes without reward. Yet one hopeful flick-on from Thiago Silva suddenly prised open the Irons’ backline. Romelu Lukaku was through, ready to make contact with the ball. Then suddenly the Belgian wasn’t.
which was because of Craig Dawson. The West Ham defender had been excellent throughout the contest but one momentary lapse of concentration proved costly as he let Lukaku escape his attention. The centre-back instinctively pulled the Chelsea striker down in the penalty area and Michael Oliver awarded the most obvious of spot-kicks. Dawson was soon sent off after a VAR review.
Jorginho stepped up to take the penalty. The Italian had converted his previous nine for Chelsea during the 2021/22 campaign so there was little reason to doubt him. “It’s a lot of pressure, especially in games like this when you need to win and the last minute,” the 30-year-old told Sky Sports this week in the aftermath of the game against the Hammers.
“You try to isolate your mind from all that pressure, even though that’s hard. You also have the VAR [review] so it takes longer, it’s harder to keep focused. What you need to do, what I try to do, is isolate my mind from all this fog and pressure. Unfortunately this time, it didn’t work.”
Jorginho’s penalty was one of the worst taken at Stamford Bridge – and that is no overreaction. Lukasz Fabianski held his nerve as the Italy international hopped and then connected with the ball; the West Ham goalkeeper didn’t move an inch and was rewarded with a simple save as Jorginho’s effort rolled tamely towards him.
