Thomas Tuchel sounded a bit fatalistic in his post-match interview after our disastrous performance in the first leg of our Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid, despite claiming to keep it real. The first step to overcoming any problem is to admit that we have a problem after all, right?
But that’s professional sport and that’s not what happens in professional sport. Messages from players on social media have been much more positive over the hours and days since, predictably, adopting the never say die attitude and the team unity that is the only necessity to try to reverse that result – or at least move on in a useful way for this weekend’s away test at Southampton.
For Mason Mount, who we could turn to to show off that classic Chelsea spirit, it’s about finding a way to climb that impossible mountain. Impossible is nothing, as the old adidas marketing slogan used to say.
“It was a very tough loss. It’s two tough losses in a row and we have to pick ourselves up. Chelsea’s philosophy is that we are always underdogs and we can climb the mountain that sometimes seems impossible. That’s what what we have to do now […]”
“It’s football, everything is possible. We have to give it our all. We know how difficult it will be. We have to regroup, attack every game 100%. Every game is a final now. We have a huge mountain to climb but we are Chelsea and if there is a team that can do it, it is us. We will give our all because we have this hunger and this desire to really achieve something.
-Mason mount; source: Chelsea FC
Of course, we must first climb the much smaller, but seemingly equally intimidating mountain that is Southampton.
