Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel was full of praise for the returning Reece James who put out an excellent showing in the 4-0 rout of Burnley on Saturday.
Following a spell of eight long weeks out on the sidelines with an injury, James was back to his very best as Chelsea made a serious push to cement their top-four credentials with a convincing outing at Turf Moor.
James opened the scoring for the visitors and later turned provider for Kai Havertz besides being a composed figure in the Chelsea backline which kept a well-earned clean sheet against The Clarets.
Goals from James, Havertz’s double and a late strike from the American international Chrisitan Pulisic powered Chelsea through to the three points on the road to Burnley with the Blues in pole position to secure Champions League qualification for the next season.
Speaking to reporters in the aftermath of the match, Tuchel was lavish in his praise for the 22-year-old James with the Chelsea gaffer admitting that it was a welcome boost on the squad selection front to have the wing-back returning to the fold.
“We missed him for such a long time that you get used to it. It was nine weeks and in this time we had something like 25 matches so we were constantly trying to find solutions and we did it as a team.
“We managed to win games and even titles in this period but once he’s back and plays three times, today the first time from the beginning you see what you missed. It’s such huge quality and very impressive how decisive he is in training and now even in the games.
“These positions are very important when you play with this structure and it’s the same on the left side so it puts things into perspective when you see what we missed and I’m very happy that he came back like this.”
