Thomas Tuchel of Chelsea and Michael Carrick of Manchester United are happy with their players’ performance in their 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, November 28.
However, Carrick who is Manchester United’s caretaker coach stressed that he was disappointed that the game ended in a draw.
During the Premier League game, Manchester United took the lead in the 50th minute after Jorginho failed to properly control the ball and gifted Jadon Sancho a goalscoring opportunity which the Englishman comfortably executed.
In the 69th minute of the game, Chelsea got back to the game from a spot-kick after Aaron Wan-Bissaka decided to kick Thiago Silva in the penalty box. Jorginho executed the penalty kick to earn Chelsea a 1-1 draw.
After the game, Michael Carrick insisted that Manchester United had the chance of winning the game since they scored first, adding that United came to Stamford Bridge to win.
He also insisted that the incident that led to the penalty call in favor of Chelsea was not worth such a punishment.
“I’m disappointed actually”, he told Sky Sports. “When you are in front in a game like this to have it taken away is disappointing. I’m proud of the players and the group all week. In a difficult situation, we tried to make the best of it. But there is that little bitter feeling. We came to win the game. A little disappointed, I can’t lie.
“I don’t think it was a penalty at all. They have had a lot of shots, David had two saves which we knew before the game he would have to make one or two. Other than that I have felt quite comfortable in the game. Of course, we want to be better. I am not getting carried away but I thought we defended well. I cannot fault the boys one bit.
“To come away disappointed and to feel like you have left something out there is a positive.”
🗣 “I’m disappointed actually. When you are in front in a game like this to have it taken away is disappointing”
— Sky Sports (@SkySports) November 28, 2021
Michael Carrick speaks to Sky Sports following Man Utd’s draw with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.pic.twitter.com/5Ue2CYpk6V
On the other hand, Chelsea’s coach Tuchel enjoyed the fact that his team made a huge effort against Manchester United in terms of ball recoveries.
He however noted Chelsea had a lot of chances to kill the game which the home team failed to take and the team was punished for it.
“I’m absolutely happy”, he told Sky Sports. “I was happy to coach the team, I saw a huge effort, big intensity, so many ball recoveries in the opponent’s half, but the pressure was up high. We controlled the counter-attacks before they started, we were brave.
“They defended deep and maybe you need the first goal to open up a bit and gain the last percent of freedom and confidence to have follow-ups and big chances on goal. If you don’t score, you always run a bit behind because you feel like you’re the stronger team, you play in the opponent’s half so we have two or three big chances we should have maybe used.
“It was a very nice piece of play in the last minute between Hakim and a fantastic run of Christian [Pulisic] with good delivery. It would have been deserved, but we had to live with it.”
Chelsea were expected to beat Manchester United to maintain a three-point lead on top of the league table but failed to do so despite a series of goalscoring opportunities.
During the game, Chelsea had 24 shots, 6 of which were on target but none ended up in the back of the net except the spot-kick. But Manchester United with three shots, 2 of which were on target, were able to do more with their chances.
At the end of the game, Chelsea lost two points, which means that the gap between them and second-placed Manchester city is just a point while that between Chelsea and third-placed Liverpool is two points.
“We cannot be surprised, things like this happen”, coach Thomas Tuchel added. “It has happened twice to us now that we invest so much, we played such good games against Burnley and Man Utd and feel disappointed because we did by far enough and pushed the limits to win these games.
“But over a long season, you drop points and you dig in and you try to steal them back if someone steals points from you. This is what we’ll do… We’re in the middle of the race and this is where we want to be.”
🗣 “Not at all, I was happy with our aggression.”
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) November 28, 2021
Thomas Tuchel admits he wasn’t surprised with the way that Man United set-up their team pic.twitter.com/uw77JQUtZe
