Chelsea got back to winning ways in the Premier League as they overcame a stiff Newcastle United challenge at Stamford Bridge to claim all three points
Spain winger Pedro opened the scoring for the home side on the 9th minute. Newcastle defender Ciaran Clark then equalized on the 40th minute from a corner. Chelsea’s Brazilian winger Willian then beautifully found the corner from a tight angle to hand the Blues the lead again. Chelsea then managed to hold on and secure all 3 points. The victory meant that Chelsea moved to 47 points, and are just 1 behind Tottenham who plays Manchester United on Sunday.
30-year-old Willian has just 18 months remaining on his current contract and has been linked with a move to Barcelona for the entirety of the season. However, Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri refused to speak about that.
“Stop, stop, stop. I don’t know anything about the Willian contract, but I don’t know what to answer,” Sarri said during his post-game news conference.
“Maybe he has 12 years of the contract, I don’t know. I don’t know the detail. You are trying to let me speak about something I don’t know.”
Willian joined the Blues in August 2013 from Russian side Anzhi for a deal worth approximately 32 million pounds. Since then, the Brazilian has gone on to make 268 appearances and has scored 49 times so far. He has also assisted another 45 goals. Willian has lifted the Premier League trophy a couple of times, and the FA Cup and League Cup with Chelsea.
Sarri added: “You know very well that Willian is a very important player for us, as I said yesterday in the news conference.
“In my opinion, Willian has to stay with us. A very important player, like Pedro. [Callum] Hudson-Odoi is becoming for us a really important player.
“With Eden [Hazard] as a striker, we need wingers. So we need Pedro. We need Hudson-Odoi. We need Willian of course. For us he’s fundamental.”
Willian said that he was completely committed to Chelsea’s cause,
“My future is Chelsea, I don’t know what you’re talking about,”
Author’s take
Willian is a very talented player and is key for Chelsea. They certainly wouldn’t want to lose him in the foreseeable future.
