The Blues have won only one of their last seven league games and find themselves at third-spot trailing the league leaders Manchester City by 12 points.
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Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel felt his “boys needs some days off” after the 1-1 Premier League draw against Brighton & Hove Albion on Tuesday. The Blues have won only one of their last seven league games and find themselves trailing the league leaders Manchester City by 12 points. Chelsea went into the Brighton match on the back of a 1-0 loss against Manchester City and desperately needed to get a positive result to have a realistic chance of staying in the title-race. However, Adam Webster’s second half header canceled out Hakim Ziyech’s opener to share the points.
It ends honours even. ⏱#BhaChe pic.twitter.com/nYZ2tL3jop
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) January 18, 2022
“You can see we are mentally and physically tired,” said Tuchel after his side’s 15th game since the start of December.
“We knew they were well prepared, they had more time and less games to prepare this match.”
Chelsea will take on sixth-placed Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday in their final league game in nearly a month due to the international break and Club World Cup commitments in February. Meanwhile the German tactician is hoping to give his players the much needed rest to come back stronger in the final few months of the campaign.
“The boys need some days off, there is no other solution,” he added.
“In the moment it is difficult to be too harsh on our players because I know what is going on.”
Neither the on-field play nor the off-field mood has been satisfactory for Tuchel’s side of late, with a feud between Romelu Lukaku and the German tactician hanging in the air. Lukaku, who didn’t have a great outing against City, once again wasn’t at his best against the Seagulls.
The striker looks low on confidence and isn’t firing on all cylinders. The Brighton defenders were able to keep the 28-year-old quiet for most part of the game. Meanwhile, to add to Tuchel’s worries, Lukaku and Ziyech got into a heated discussion during the first half and were replaced after the break.
Chelsea put their nose in front in the 28th minute, when Ziyech’s left-foot effort from the right side went past Brighton goalkeeper Robert Sanchez and into the bottom corner at the near post. Sanchez should have done better.
Meanwhile on the stroke of half-time, Callum Hudson-Odoi missed a chance to extend the lead as he fired a shot over the bar from inside the box, despite being unmarked.
After the break, Brighton came out with a bit more intent and Pascal Grob played a brilliant through ball to Welbeck but the English striker’s attempt missed the target from a tight angle.
On the other hand, Brighton boss Graham Potter was considerably happy after securing a point against the European champions.”I was really pleased and proud of the performance,” said Graham Potter.
“We could work the goalkeeper a bit more, but apart from that we had everything.”
Just before the hour-mark, Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga made a brilliant save to keep out Mac Allister’s deflected attempt from 16 yards out. But The hosts leveled the score from the resulting corner. Mac Allister’s delivery from the set-piece was powerfully headed home by an unmarked Webster.
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