Thomas Tuchel conceded there was more than an element of fortune to victory in his first FA Cup tie, with Tammy Abraham saving him at both ends of the pitch to avoid an upset.
The Chelsea manager had a look at his fringe players on the boggy pitch at Oakwell and it was Abraham who seized his chance with the winner and a decisive goalline clearance. Kepa Arrizabalaga’s close-range save from Callum Brittain was also a key moment.
But this was a hard-fought and tense win to set up a quarter-final against Sheffield United at Stamford Bridge, with Valerien Ismael showing the progress he has made at Barnsley in the last few months.
“We can clearly play better but we can stop the analysis. Chelsea through to the quarter-final. Full stop,” Tuchel said. “We were lucky twice when Kepa saved us and when Tammy saved us with the header on the line. We were lucky but in the cup it is sometimes like this but I don’t want to be too harsh with the guys. To cope with the difficulties was hard for us.
“I have to be honest, I’m relieved. We struggled to cope with the first challenges and second balls. So, in the end, we were way too deep for too long.”
Tuchel will also point to the changes he made at half-time as having an effect. Reece James came on and set up the winner, with his system changing to a 3-4-3. Billy Gilmour played his part in the goal and staked a claim for more game-time but for many others there will need to be improvements before Tuchel relies on them regularly.
Kepa did his chances no harm with his early save. Alex Mowatt’s cross had been flicked on and Brittain nipped in front of Marcos Alonso and found himself in front of goal, but the world’s most expensive goalkeeper stuck out a leg to save.
Off the pitch, Barnsley had to deal with the embarrassment of their Twitter account being suspended on matchday over the copyright of an audio clip they used a few years ago. But on the pitch, Ismael’s team were organised and industrious.
Brittain had another excellent chance before the break after a well-worked short corner that saw the ball worked to him in space. His finish was heading into the bottom corner but his team-mate, Victor Adeboyejo, deflected it wide.
Abraham’s winner came when Gilmour split the Barnsley defence with his ball to James and despite being in a good position to shoot, his cross was tapped in by Abraham. It was his first goal since scoring a hat-trick against Luton Town in the previous round.
“He scores decisive goals in cup games and this was very decisive,” said Tuchel. “Good for him, for strikers it is good to score.” Report here
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