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Your support makes all the difference.Chelsea may have become a rolling crisis but one player has been enjoying a season to savour. Willian’s emergence as a dead-ball expert has made him the club’s leading scorer with his fifth goal earning a badly needed Champions League victory over Dynamo Kiev on Wednesday.
Unsurprisingly the Brazilian cut a relaxed figure at Chelsea’s Cobham training base when The Independent caught up with him at the launch of Electronic Arts’ Need For Speed the following day.
Looking back on a peach of a strike that dipped and curled into the top left-hand corner to send the Stamford Bridge faithful into relieved ecstasy, he said: “I think it was one of the best goals I have scored in my career.” It was certainly one of the most appreciated, especially from Jose Mourinho. The Chelsea manager has been facing mounting pressure this season and when Dynamo Kiev pulled a goal back on Wednesday it was not just the fans who began to doubt.
“In the second half we conceded a goal and we started to think with all that has been going on ‘are we going to draw again or are we going to lose this game again?’” Willian said.
The 27-year-old’s free-kick prowess ensured Chelsea instead won the match, further enhancing the former Shakthar Donetsk player’s reputation. Laughing modestly, he described how, when it came to technique, “I would look to David Beckham, Andrea Pirlo and, yes, Ronaldinho”.
With Diego Costa having scored only twice in the league this season, and Eden Hazard not at all, Chelsea appear reliant on Willian maintaining his form. The idea does not appear to faze him. “I am quite confident I am ready to deal with this pressure,” he said. “Obviously I won’t be able to score goals every single game but I am going to try and keep doing my best so I can keep helping the team and score as many goals as I can.”
It had been the worst start to a Chelsea league season in the Roman Abramovich era. The Blues’ currently languish in 15th place in the Premier League table, four points from the bottom three, and face a trip to Stoke City today.
Willian, though, looked positively on the trip to the Potteries. “It is always difficult playing Stoke away. They always have a very physical side with big players. But at this moment I think we are capable of going out there at the weekend and producing a good game.”
Willian brings the Five Ways to Play to life as he takes control of a BMW M3 using a PlayStation 4 controller for the launch of Need for Speed. Watch at youtube.com/yrefined
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