Chelsea defender names the three players who gave them a ‘different spirit’ in West Ham win

Chelsea will have their thoughts now firmly on Thursdays match against Manchester United in the Premier League.

The games are coming in thick and fast as we wind down to the end of another season, and Chelsea’s late win against West Ham on Sunday was a massive boost in making them a bit more comfortable in the race for top four, which let’s be honest, we are still in no matter how comfortable we seem to be.

Callum Hudson-Odoi is struggling with a latest injury setback.

So the West Ham game was huge, and the 90th minute winner from Christian Pulisic was even bigger. You felt like a win at Stamford Bridge as well was such a big relief after all the defeats there recently.

Thomas Tuchel made three substitutes that galvanised Chelsea in the second half, he bought on Hakim Ziyech, Christian Pulisic, and Romelu Lukaku.

And captain Cesar Azpilicueta believes those three gave Chelsea a ‘different spirit’ to go on and win the match.

“Massive three points, we’ve been on a bad run at home, we didn’t look the best in the first half but we knew it would be a difficult game, we kept the spirit and we fought until the end,” Azpilicueta said via the Chelsea website. “It was a big three points which I think we deserved.

“When you get a late penalty and you have the chance to score and it doesn’t go in, maybe you can drop and say you missed a big opportunity, but the team reacted really well. This is how we have to react, altogether until the end. Christian [Pulisic] scored a massive goal and of course we’re very happy.

“Amazing ball by Marcos, a good cut back and great finish. That is the way we were creating chances, arriving in the box and crossing the ball, arriving from the second line and of course it was a big impact from Christian, Romelu and Hakim as well. They gave us a different spirit, we are a team and we have to go through these moments together. We need help from everybody.

“I am really pleased for Christian. Lately he has not had a lot of minutes but he has been working really hard. He got the reward, and hopefully he can keep going in this direction.

“If we go through everything there are also little things that can happen, the results as well as the confidence. We have a lot of injuries as well right now but we have to deal with it. It is not an excuse. As I always say at the start of every season, we go for everything.

“Sometimes the consequences of arriving at the latter stages of every competition is that you play more games. We have to cope with it as we are competitors, and after the bad run we have had at home, conceding a lot of goals, it is nice to leave with a happy face.”

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