Thomas Tuchel insists Chelsea still have more work to do to be ready for their Premier League opener against Everton next Saturday after concluding their pre-season preparations.
Chelsea won both of their games against Udinese in Italy at the Dacia Arena as Tuchel gave two squads the chance to play up to 90 minutes to boost their match fitness.
Friday night saw the first string side play and they came out 3-1 winners, thanks to goals from N’Golo Kante, Raheem Sterling and Mason Mount.
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Meanwhile, 12 hours later they won 2-0 following Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s opener and Hakim Ziyech’s goal from the penalty spot.
It ended Chelsea’s 2022 pre-season on a positive note as they fly back to England, and following their win on Friday, Tuchel was upbeat however insisted they still aren’t fully ready to face Everton.
He said: “We trained a lot this week, especially two days ago so we did not have the freshest legs.
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"But we have a lot of positive things to take away from this game.
"It’s a good performance, it’s a good result, we could’ve scored much more, should’ve scored much more.
"But overall, it’s a lot of positive stuff to take away from this.
“Tomorrow (Saturday), we play another match here against Udinese, another team, to have minutes in our legs.
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"Then it’s two days break. Then we prepare nothing else but Everton because they are right in front of the door and we need to improve, we are not ready yet.
"We don’t have to be ready yet, we have another week and then it’s the time to be on the best level and there’s still some way to go.”
Chelsea now head back to England for a couple days rest before returning to their Cobham training ground on Tuesday, according to Tuchel’s planned schedule for his players.
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They will then get ready for the trip up north to Merseyside to play Frank Lampard’s side, who beat them at Goodison Park last season.
It has been a tiring and demanding pre-season for Tuchel and co after their tour of America, but the Chelsea head coach is looking forward to getting underway in 2022-23.
He added: “It was a pretty long pre-season, tiring and exhausting to be in the US for so long and having another travel today in the circumstances.
"Not so easy, pretty demanding, always nice when the season arrives, you feel the tension and pressure which we all enjoy.
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“We will have this next week."
Topics: Thomas Tuchel, Chelsea, Football
Matthew Debono