What happened to Olivier Giroud in Chelsea training
session ahead of Crystal Palace showdown
All the very latest news from Chelsea’s Cobham training
ground ahead of their Premier League meeting with Crystal Palace at Selhurst
Park on Saturday evening
Chelsea will
be looking to build on their midweek UEFA Champions League quarter-final
first-leg victory over FC Porto when they make the short trip to Selhurst Park
to face Crystal Palace this evening.
The
Blues, who hammered Palace 4-0 at Stamford Bridge back in October, got back to
winning ways in midweek thanks to goals either side of half-time from Mason
Mount and Ben Chilwell.
It was the perfect response from the Blues
following last weekend’s shock 5-2 home defeat to West Bromwich Albion, marking
head coach Thomas Tuchel’s first defeat in the job since succeeding Frank
Lampard towards the end of January.
Now, before resuming their European battle with Porto in midweek,
Chelsea face a short hop across London to face Palace this teatime knowing that
a victory would move them into the top-four ahead of West Ham United, who are
not in action until Sunday this weekend.
Ahead of the showdown with Roy Hodgson’s men, who will enter this
teatime’s meeting having lost just one of their last six Premier League
matches, Tuchel has been putting his players through their paces at their
Cobham training base in preparation.
One of
the biggest features of their latest training session was shooting practice, as
captured by Chelsea’s club cameras for their behind-the-scenes YouTube feature.
Watch the Video Below
The Blues have uploaded five minutes
worth of unseen, behind the scenes footage for supporters to watch and get an
insight into how the players have been getting themselves ready for today’s
tussle with their London counterparts.
And one particular moment is likely to have brought a smile
to the faces of those watching.
With Chelsea’s strikers having been struggling to score
goals of late, Timo Werner, Tammy Abraham and Olivier Giroud were put through
some rigorous shooting drills in an attempt to transform their current
fortunes.
Whilst most of their efforts found a way past Willy
Caballero in the Blues goal, one of Giroud’s efforts went flying over the
crossbar. For his failings, the France international, who is out-of-contract at
Stamford Bridge this summer, was handed a light-hearted punishment.
The former Arsenal man was ordered to do ten press-ups as a
forfeit.
Giroud obliged without any fuss and
soon started to test his strength whilst Werner took aim at Caballero in
between the sticks once again.
In truth, it will be little surprise to anybody to see Chelsea’s forwards carrying out such intensive shooting drills after they were challenged by Tuchel to end the season with a flourish and increase their respective goal tallies, as the Blues continue to be linked with summer moves for both Erling Haaland and Sergio Aguero.
Tuchel, as quoted by the Mail, said:
“For the next eight weeks, we just have to think how we can improve the scoring
and the scoring situation, and nothing else, and then in the summer we will
think further and think together with the club about what solutions are the
best solutions for us.
“Is it the best solution to stay with our squad? Is it the
best solution to stay in the formation that we have? Can we improve on the
training pitch individually and as a group… these are the questions for June.
“For now, in April when we arrive, everybody knows that when
you read the statistics it’s obvious and the guys lack this last percentage of
confidence when they don’t score.
“Everybody wants higher numbers, us, you, but it’s difficult
for us to produce, obviously, but we will not stop pushing.”
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