European Champions Chelsea suffered a shock 0-1 defeat at home to Manchester City in the Premier League.
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In what was a repeat of last season’s Champions League final, Manchester City emerged as the winners this time, beating Chelsea in their own backyard in the Premier League. The Blues’ manager Thomas Tuchel admitted that his side were not at their best against a solid Manchester City team at Stamford Bridge on Saturday. The home side were beaten by a deflected strike from Gabriel Jesus early in the second half, which proved enough to claim all three points for Pep Guardiola’s men. After losing their first game of the current season, Tuchel claimed that Chelsea did not offer much offensively to win the match.
“We lost the game and City deserved to win,” Tuchel was quoted as saying by the club’s website. “For 60 minutes, until the goal, we were very strong in the last [defensive] 20 metres of the field but only there unfortunately. The other 80 metres, we were not good enough. We were never on our highest level. You cannot expect to get a result. It could turn around maybe with one header but we have to accept it was not our best game.
“We did not have ball possession to hurt them, to grow in confidence. It never happened in the first half or the second half. Until the goal, we defended the box very well but the performance was not complex enough. We were not on our very best level and you need the best level to push the game against this side.”
Speaking about some of the selection decisions, Thomas Tuchel said, “I think we lacked a little bit of freshness today. Kante has been ill for some days and I decided to let him start. Jorginho has had some problems and Thiago could not start, so maybe today it is on me for not making the best choices in that sense. We decided on 3-5-2 but I don’t think it’s a matter of structure against City, it’s about decisions and adapting to the opponent’s spaces.”
“We win together and we lose together but I will ask the questions of myself of whether it was the right shape but I’m not sure the shape was decisive in the result.”
Lamenting the ball possession, the Chelsea manager admitted that they were also not able to escape City’s pressing effectively. “We were not good enough today to escape pressure. Our ball possession wasn’t the sharpest in terms of switching the play to hurt them, to give us confidence and to breathe. This didn’t happen enough,” he added.
“I did not feel that we 100 per cent believed in it. It was doubtful and we were protecting something. It felt like we had something to lose and we lacked energy but that can happen. After the goal, you feel like the belief of winning is bigger than losing. We tried to push and get the crowd behind us so it was a very open, emotional game.”
Thomas Tuchel also believed that Chelsea’s attacking struggles on Saturday was down to the entire team rather than a specific individual. “I don’t think it’s necessary to talk about Romelu’s struggles today. When we reached him, the attack was already half over because there were not enough people and there was simply no belief and connection. It was a team problem rather than an individual problem.”
The manager also gave an update on Reece James after the right-back came off injured. “I don’t know about Reece at the moment. He twisted his ankle and it was very painful for him. I have no other news on him at this stage but let’s see how he is in the next few days,” Tuchel concluded.
