Begovic: Chelsea ‘not happy’ with start

Asmir Begovic: Set to leave Chelsea

Asmir Begovic: Set to leave Chelsea

Asmir Begovic has said Chelsea are “not happy” with their start to the Premier League after three defeats in their first six games.

Begovic has had an extended run in Jose Mourinho’s first team after the long-term knee injury picked up by Thibaut Courtois.

The Bosnia keeper started in Wednesday’s 4-1 League Cup win over Walsall – his fourth consecutive start for the Blues – after Courtois injured his knee in training last month.

Focus now switches back to the Premier League, and Begovic hopes the champions can build on last weekend’s win over Arsenal when they travel up to struggling Newcastle on Saturday.

“Overall we’re not happy with the start, it’s not the standard we normally set so we’ve looked to turn it around,” Begovic told the club’s website.

“The last week has been really good for us with three wins in a row and we need to keep it going. We’ll just take it one game at a time, try to claw those points back and look forward to the rest of the season.

“The Premier League is very unpredictable and a lot of things can happen, we’ll just have to take care of our job and hopefully the rest will take care of itself.

“It’s a big game so we obviously have to recover quickly, get over this one and prepare for Saturday. It’s never easy going to Newcastle so we’re well up for the game.”

Begovic, who felt the Blues controlled the game against Walsall, says he is just glad to get his chance in the team.

“It’s really unfortunate for Thibaut and I wish him a speedy recovery but I’m enjoying the games, enjoying playing, and the main thing is I’m contributing to the team,” he said.

“I see every game as an opportunity. I’ll play when the manager decides to play me and it’s just nice to be part of so many games in each competition and obviously the further we go the more games we’ll have and the players are going to be happy.

“I came here to help the team compete for trophies, so this was a good step forward, we’re in the next round and obviously still in contention for the trophy.”

The win at the Bescot Stadium earned Chelsea a fourth-round clash with Begovic’s former club Stoke.

“Walsall had looked forward to the occasion, they were going to be up for it and they’re a decent side, so we had to do a professional job, take our chances and take control of the game,” added Begovic.

“I think overall we did okay and got the job done, but it was never going to be easy and credit to Walsall because they made it difficult at times. We scored at the right times, that helped a lot and saw us through.

 

“You don’t like to concede. It would have been nice to have kept a clean sheet but it was all about getting into the next round and keeping the trophy defence going.

“From our point of view it’s something we’ll look at; it was a tough goal to concede just before half-time but we scored pretty soon in the second half and that settled everything down again.”