Daniel Sturridge and Micah Richards agree on ‘excellent’ Chelsea in FA Cup final defeat

On another day, Chelsea could have been handed a penalty. McFarlane was raging the Blues weren’t awarded a spot kick for a challenge on Jorrel Hato.

A silver lining from the defeat at Wembley…

Thomas Tuchel was in attendance ahead of the World Cup…

Daniel Sturridge and Micah Richards believe Chelsea were ‘excellent’ in the FA Cup final

Alan Shearer was full of praise for Levi Colwill for his performance in the cup final, and a number of other players in the backline impressed up against a usually free-flowing City attack.

Daniel Sturridge was convinced that there were enough positives for Chelsea to take from the game, particularly with how they set up and defended from the start.

He told BBC Sport: “I think the performance was really good. They were solid, they worked tirelessly, they were compact. They did create problems the other way, had a couple of penalty claims, a great chance for Enzo.

“All in all, I think they can take pride in their performance. Could they have done more going forward? Absolutely, but defensively you can take positives from it.”

Micah Richards agreed with the former Blues striker, going as far to say that Chelsea were ‘excellent’ in the FA Cup final.

He said: “I thought Chelsea were excellent. I think what they’ve shown now is, they did down tools under Rosenior. They weren’t working like they worked today. they’ve got Spurs on Tuesday, they need to take this into that game.

“I thought they were very good off the ball. If you look at the whole picture and how Chelsea played today, they can definitely take positives from that.”

Has Xabi Alonso chosen the right TWO players to build his Chelsea team around?🤔

Chelsea show positive signs as new manager is confirmed

In the minutes after the FA cup final defeat, it was widely reported that the club had struck an agreement to hire Xabi Alonso as their new manager.

The Spaniard will replace McFarlane at the end of the season, and has been handed more control over proceedings than those who came before him at Stamford Bridge.

The Chelsea players may have felt as they had little to play for in the final two games of the season after defeat at Wembley, but now they will have knowledge that the Spaniard is watching on with the next campaign in mind.

It remains to be seen what his starting side will look like, although it has already been claimed that Alonso wants Enzo Fernandez and Marc Cucurella in his squad.