_Is the key to put games out of sight when we’re having such good spells, as we did in the first half?_
Ange: “To a certain extent, yes, but it also helps if you don’t lose your centre-half straight afterwards. The boys are giving everything. We’re on fumes at the moment terms of this playing squad, and what we didn’t need was to lose another player in that position. To be fair, Cristian wasn’t the one I was worried about, Micky was the one I was worried about, and he’s come off with a totally different injury. Cuti is a leader, a World Cup winner. If you want someone to take control of a game, he’s the man. If you then lose him after 20 minutes, it doesn’t allow us to do that. Even after that, I still felt we had big moments to get a third goal and kill the game off.”
_What can you tell us about the injuries?_
Ange: “Brennan just wasn’t feeling well, he wasn’t feeling well at half-time, wanted to give it a go. We got him back out there, but he just wasn’t right. The plan with Micky was always to play him 60, 70 minutes. Again, I wasn’t worried about Cristian, I thought he could play 90, and give Micky 60 or 70, but we had to keep him out there a bit longer. It doesn’t seem like he’s done anything, just felt a bit tight. Hopefully he’ll be fine.”
Ange later said in his press conference that Cuti’s injury was a quad issue.
_How difficult will it be going forward in this spell with these injuries?_
Ange: “As difficult as it has been leading up to it, but we got no choice, we’ll have to soldier on and keep going. It’s not from lack of trying with the players, some aren’t getting a rest, they’re playing every game and giving everything they can, and that’s all we can ask for.”
_How much will it benefit the squad - particularly the younger players - to come through a period like this?_
Ange: “I still think this period will help us in the long term, for sure. For all the players. Since I’ve been here, we haven’t had a smooth run with things. It’s always been a challenge to get some consistency and get players available, and consistency in the way we do things. We’ll get there. That time will come. In my experience, it always does come and when it does, having come through this, I think it will make us a stronger team.”
_Finally Ange, how much will the players take from how we took the game to Chelsea?_
Ange: “I think we’ve shown that this year. We’ve been inconsistent, but part of that inconsistency is also, in our good moments, we’ve shown we’re as good as anyone. You need to hang onto that. It’s not like we haven’t shown any potential to play against the best and outplay the best, so that exists, it’s how we bring it out in a more consistent basis.”