London, September 20 (BUS) – Chelsea coach Thomas Tuchel said he could not believe how good N’Golo Kante was after the Frenchman inspired Chelsea to a 3-0 win over Tottenham.
Unhappy with what he saw in the first half in north London, he sent Tuchel to Kanté at the end of the first half and made an immediate profit as Chelsea scored twice in the first 12 minutes of the second half.
Kante scored the second goal after Thiago Silva’s opener and Antonio Rudiger added the third in stoppage time as Chelsea finished the weekend top of the Premier League.
“Best player, if you have a N’Golo, you have something everyone is looking for,” Tuchel said. “You have everything you need in midfield, you have work rate, intensity, wins with the ball, skill play, dribbles, pushing in the half and even a goal.
“I see this every day in training and it’s hard to believe how amazing he is. He’s such a one-of-a-kind guy, there are no more words from me. N’Golo is N’Golo, he’s awesome.”
Spurs, who were mourning the death of record scorer Jimmy Greaves, played high energy in the first half and Tuchel didn’t like what he saw on his side.
“We didn’t change the system,” he said, “but that’s probably the point, it looks like we changed the system, playing the system with more energy, quality, and clarity.”
“It was too simple, not sharp enough, we just relied on our skill in the first half and I had a feeling we forgot to bring the right attitude and energy for this game.
“If you have N’Golo on the bench and you want to progress in these styles of the game, he is the best player to bring because he is unique and can change any momentum.
“I’m happy with the reaction, it was badly needed and we played a very strong half to deserve our victory.”
Spurs are within a million miles of the side that Greaves was a rampant goalscorer at during the 1960s and even beyond that reached the Champions League final just over two years ago.
After winning his first three games under new coach Nuno Espirito Santo, things started to fall apart after their second consecutive 3-0 defeat in the league.
They looked brilliant in the first half, but were unable to break through and could not recover from Silva’s opening goal in the 49th minute, which came from a free kick.
Nuno said: “I think changing the game was a fixed piece, after that it became difficult for us to get back into the game.
“The goal we conceded, we started to strive for a result and with the quality of the players that Chelsea made to create problems, straight balls, run back and that is the main reason.
“We’ll do the analysis, there’s a lot of things to look at, but the first impression is the way we really gave our penalty after all the energy we put in in the first half.
“We have to find solutions. From the start, that has been our focus – to find solutions that can help the players perform. To find partnerships. We started one way at the start of the season because those were the players available to build on.