Chelsea’s yo-yoing form continued at the weekend as we once again bounced back from defeat with a victory, though Jorginho highlighted the team’s mentality as particularly significant in establishing consistency.
The Italian international came on with just half-hour played away at Arsenal as Frank Lampard switched from 3-4-3 to 4-3-3 and he admitted afterwards that the boss had simply instructed him to be more vocal in delivering instructions once the change had been made.
‘We needed to push and I tried to push my mates,’ Jorginho said. ‘We were a bit soft from the beginning and I tried to change that but we also needed to change our minds because we were not fighting enough.
‘Sometimes it can happen and maybe we need to change a little bit our minds and prepare better for the game because when you are in the game, to change your mind is quite difficult.
‘You can go on the pitch and you are not ready, and then when you want to change because you realise you are not fighting enough, it’s hard. Against Arsenal, we could change that but sometimes you can’t so maybe we need to prepare ourselves better.’
As vice-captain of the team, Jorginho felt the responsibility to take a leadership role when called upon from the bench at the Emirates but he insisted that was a natural position for him to take on.
‘The most important thing is that all the players can talk and help,' he said. ''I came on from the bench and I could help my mates but the most important thing was the result. We worked a lot and I think we deserved to win.
‘If Frank things it’s the best for the team then I’m happy but I haven’t changed myself,' he said of the vice-captaincy. 'I will be the same guy. I try to help and when I have to smile and joke, then I do it a lot but when we have to work then I do that and we work hard.’
Although Lampard’s Chelsea have developed a reputation for featuring young homegrown players – five of those who were involved against Arsenal signed for our Academy at the age of eight – Jorginho was keen to emphasise that leadership must come from the whole group.
‘When you play for Chelsea, we talk about young, young, young players but we are in the middle of the season now and every player has to take their responsibility,’ the 28-year-old admitted.
‘Of course the older players have to step up but for the young ones, it’s not an excuse. You just have to be ready, to prepare the game and be ready to fight because we are playing for Chelsea in the Premier League.
‘It’s very important winning this derby because we know it’s difficult and it’s hard to win away. The feeling is amazing but now we need to change our minds and win at home as well because we have been losing too many points.’
It was another away victory that followed a Stamford Bridge defeat and Jorginho was quick to admit that our form at home needed to improve swiftly. We are away next to Brighton on New Year’s Day before consecutive home fixtures against Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup and Burnley in the Premier League.
‘Maybe for mentality, it’s easier to play away because you know you have to fight,’ Jorginho revealed. ‘Sometimes you go on the pitch when you play at home and it’s a bit soft so that is what we have to change.
‘We need to push, to break lines and run more behind the lines. Sometimes we don’t do that, we just want to play with the ball at our feet and maybe we could change that. We play against teams who don’t want to play, they just defend and make counter-attacks so we need to work out how we can break that.’