Trevor Chalobah believes Chelsea’s winning mentality is the reason they reach another major final, with caretaker manager Callum MacFarlane set to lead the club into next month’s 17th FA Cup final.
Chelsea’s Trevo Chalovar celebrates with supporters after the FA Cup win over Leeds (Image: News Images/NurPhoto)
Trevor Chalovar claims Chelsea players needed to “cut out the noise” and prove they were still winners.
Chelsea’s dressing room came under heavy fire after they were accused of dropping equipment and signing Liam Rosenior after a run of five consecutive league defeats without a goal. But they have re-emerged under caretaker manager Callum McFarlane to reach the club’s 17th FA Cup final and could end the season with the trophy if they can beat Manchester City next month.
Chalobá says it’s down to the mentality within the team, but insists the club needed a “reset” to ensure a return to Europe next season.
Chelsea defender Chalobah said: “Criticism is part of it. If we don’t win games, of course we’re going to get criticized. For us, we just have to cut out all the noise, trust ourselves, trust in our communication and our abilities and talk to ourselves.”
“That’s what we have to do from now until the end of the season. Like I said, whether you do something bad or good, there’s always going to be people to argue with you. It’s important to just focus on what we have.”
“It’s another final. That’s it, another final. We were in the final last year and the year before. We have that mentality, and I’m glad we showed it today. We all knew the goal, we all knew what the goal was. We’re just going to win no matter what.”
“When obviously things aren’t going your way and the results aren’t going your way, you can still hold on to that because we’ve shown that in parts of this season.
“It was a similar conversation. We just need to show our mentality, our winning habits, our winning spirit.”
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Rosenior was sacked the day after Chelsea lost to Brighton, but he was sent off after not a single player on social media wished him well. Chalobah admitted that Chelsea’s players must bear some of the blame, but now it must be put right.
“Whatever a coach does, it’s difficult. Spend time with them, work with them day in and day out. You have to adapt, you have to reset again. For us, we can use it as an excuse, but at the end of the day we have to look at ourselves as players.”
“For us, it was just resetting and getting back to our standards. We still have the same players that we had when we were flying at the beginning of the season. So it’s not like we lose our ability overnight. It’s just obviously a reset and getting that feel, that feel, that mentality back.”
Chelsea’s Trevor Chalobá, Pedro Neto and Marc Cucurella celebrate (Image: Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)
Chelsea are looking forward to the FA Cup final, but Chalová admits it is essential the club returns to Europe next season and believes they can still do that.
He added: “This is Chelsea Football Club, this is where we want to be and we have to do everything we can to get into Europe.”
“For us, we just have to focus on what we have. There are five finals left. There are four finals in the Premier League and of course this is the final here. But for us, it’s five finals. We have to go there with quality.”
“The past is the past. What matters is the result. We need to win games. That’s what the fans, that’s what we want and that’s what the club wants.”
“You take responsibility. Right now, until the end of the season, we don’t have anything else. There’s no other excuse. We just have to go out there and try to win games.”
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