Chelsea head coach Thomas Tuchel has emphasised the importance of the wing-backs in his system after Reece James scored a brace against Newcastle.
The England right-back opened the scoring with an excellent finish before doubling the Blues’ lead as they won 3-0 at St James’ Park on Saturday.
Jorginho sealed the win with a late penalty to put Tuchel’s men three points clear at the top of the Premier League.
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It has been a great weekend for Chelsea as fellow title contenders Manchester City and Liverpool dropped points.
Their success under the German head coach has been helped by the impressive performances from his wing-backs.
James, Ben Chilwell, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Marcos Alonso have all excelled in the role under Tuchel since he replaced Frank Lampard last season.
On the importance of the wing-backs, the 48-year-old said: “Reece is allowed to come inside, that’s not a problem. All the spaces we want to attack from, we have all the players in the spaces we want to be dangerous. So if there is a winger waiting wide, the wing-back is allowed to attack the half space.
“I think every team does this in this system. We need the wing-backs to arrive in our box to increase the chance of scoring and create goal chances. The first goal, it was brilliant dribbling from Callum on the left side. Ruben arrived, Kai was in the box, and this is what it takes in the end to have a rebound and a chance for a goal.
“Reece took it brilliantly.”
He added: “It’s a complex game and I don’t think Reece can score if Callum does do the dribbling and Chilly opens the space.
“We have Kai attacking the space and then Ruben. This is why sometimes our strikers are sacrificing space. We don’t need exercise shooting with Reece, he shoots like a horse.”
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