As the Blues prepare to take on Everton in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup tomorrow, Thibaut Courtois says the team’s sole focus this week is on overcoming the Toffees and going as far in the competition as possible.
Following Saturday’s late show against Watford, when we came from behind to win 4-2, attention now switches to a tournament we last won in 2015, and a fixture against an Everton side who are under the temporary charge of David Unsworth following the dismissal of Ronald Koeman.
The fact our opponents have been struggling in the Premier League, however, will not have any impact on tomorrow’s game, according to Courtois.
‘It’s a cup, and with any cup you want to win it,’ said the Belgian.
‘You want to go far. With injuries, maybe we don’t have the possibility to rotate a lot so we will have to see what team the manager puts out, but I don’t think it’s a moment to relax.
‘It’s a different kind of pressure than the Champions League, where we are doing well and we want to stay top of the group. In the Premier League we have to fight to keep on winning games and the Carabao Cup is something else, so we must try to do our best and go far.
‘Everton have been struggling at the moment. I don’t think they are playing badly but they have conceded some sloppy goals, and other teams have had more luck, but the Premier League is hard. This is another competition, though, and they will be ready to win it.’
The goalkeeper went on to explain how the spirit shown by the Chelsea team against Watford emphasised how everybody is pulling in the same direction.
‘When a top team has a few bad results the first thing they [the media] try to say is that the players are not happy and we’re not behind the coach, but against Watford you saw we fought for every moment and we fought when we were down, so everybody can see we’re behind the coach,’ he said.
‘Those rumours are easy to spread but I don’t think they are true. If somebody is unhappy, instead of going to the press I think they would say it internally, so it’s not true.
‘First of all, it’s the players that have to do it on the pitch so it was important to win, to fight. At the moment it’s more running, fighting and battling for every ball than maybe the best football.’