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Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel admits his side were 'lucky' to leave Watford with a 2-1 victory.

Emmanuel Dennis had cancelled out Mason Mount's opener, before Hakim Ziyech won it for the Blues - in a match which was halted for 32 minutes after a fan, who is now stable, suffered a cardiac arrest in the stands.

Ziyech rounded off a rare free-flowing move from the visitors
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Ziyech rounded off a rare free-flowing move from the visitorsCredit: Getty
Watford delivered a brilliant performance despite losing
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Watford delivered a brilliant performance despite losingCredit: AFP

The Hornets will consider themselves unfortunate, having given the Premier League leaders a very even game, maybe even edging the visitors in certain moments.

Chelsea were far from their usual selves, perhaps down to a host of key players missing, but Tuchel refused to make excuses for their sub-par display.

“We stole three points. We don't have to talk around it. For the first time it feels like a lucky win,” Tuchel told Amazon Prime Video after the game.

“That's not us. We were absolutely not ready today for this match. I missed maybe to find the right approach to make my team ready.

“We had the break due to very sad circumstances – hopefully the person is better. Even this break after the first 11 minutes did not change our approach. We did not cope with the pressure, with the first ball, second ball.

Tuchel was fuming with his team's performance but took full responsibility
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Tuchel was fuming with his team's performance but took full responsibilityCredit: AFP

“We had a lot of changes but too many faults. It did not get better. The only thing we could do was hang in there and focus on the easy things. It was a lucky win.”

Tuchel was forced to play Atletico Madrid loanee Saul Niguez, with Jorginho, N'Golo Kante and Mateo Kovacic all injured.

But the Spaniard delivered yet another shocking performance and got dragged off at half-time for the second time in as many Premier League starts, to avoid a second yellow card which felt inevitable.

Defender Trevoh Chalobah was moved into midfield and also had to be replaced due to injury.

"I don’t know where he [Saul] goes from this performance but he was on a yellow card so we had two options," Tuchel explained.

Saul was alarmingly far off the pace - and not for the first time in a Chelsea shirt
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Saul was alarmingly far off the pace - and not for the first time in a Chelsea shirtCredit: Getty

"We could have taken Marcos [Alonso] off who also had a yellow card and try Saul as a wing-back.

"I had this in my mind before the game, if something happened to Marcos. But I thought maybe it was not the right match to try things with new positions so it was [subbing] him to change the shape a little bit and have Thiago on the pitch with his organising.

"Having Trevoh [Chalobah] on the number six who is more physical – unfortunately Trevoh injured himself and we ended up with Ruben on the single six. But it was a tactical decision."

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