Thomas Tuchel remains unbeaten after 12 matches as Chelsea manager, but his side's lack of firepower meant it had to settle for a goalless draw at Leeds United in the Premier League on Saturday.
Chelsea remains in fourth place, and is two points off third-placed Leicester City who have a game in hand.
Leeds had an early effort from Tyler Roberts ruled out for offside and then Chelsea came close thanks to a mess-up in the Leeds defence. Luke Ayling blasted a clearance into team-mate Diego Llorente and the ball struck the bar before falling into the arms of keeper Illan Meslier
READ |
Chelsea keeper Edouard Mendy did well to tip a curling shot from Roberts against the bar and had to be on alert several times after the break.
Mendy quickly changed direction to keep out a Raphinha effort, and the Senegal international did well again to stop a Rodrigo header.
Tuchel used Kai Havertz as his central striker but the German, although impressive in build-up play, was unable to make the most of the two half-chances that came his way.
"He is comfortable in high positions and he arrives in the box naturally. Normally he has good finishing and normally the chances he had are enough to score. But unfortunately not today," said Tuchel.
"We had enough chances to score. It was an OK game, sometimes it is hard to score. It was not so nice to play and the pitch is not in good condition - this is a factor.
"Our timing in the last 20 minutes - we need to be more clinical. We invest a lot against the ball so also we were tired when we arrived in good positions," he said.
ALSO READ |
Leeds has just one win in its ast six games but is comfortable in 11th place although iwill bt e concerned about forward Patrick Bamford, who had to go off injured 10 minutes before the break.
"We value the point a lot," said Leeds manager Marcelo Bielsa.
"If there had to be a winner it wouldn't have been us. In the first half they established a difference in comparison to us. In the second half we were slightly better".
Relegation-threatened West Brom lose 1-0 to Palace
Premier League struggler West Bromwich Albion's hopes of getting out of the relegation zone took a blow on Saturday when it lost 1-0 to Crystal Palace after a first-half penalty by Luka Milivojevic.
The Palace captain found the bottom right corner from the spot in the 37th minute after West Brom defender Darnell Furlong was booked for a handball inside the penalty area following a VAR check.
ALSO READ |
West Brom created several chances, with midfielders Conor Gallagher and Matheus Pereira coming close to scoring, but they were unable to find the net.
The win lifted Palace two places to 11th on 37 points after 29 games, while second-bottom West Brom remain eight adrift of the safety zone on 18 points with nine games left to play.
Comments
SHARE