Thomas Tuchel frustrated as 'mentally and physically tired' Chelsea drop more points
- News Feeds
- 19 January 2022
German continues to blame injuries and Covid-19 for faltering Chelsea Premier League title bid.
Thomas Tuchel is standing by his belief that injuries and Covid are responsible for Chelsea falling out of the title race.
Chelsea were top of the Premier League table in December, but are now 12 points behind leaders Manchester City having played a game more.
They travelled to Brighton on Tuesday night hoping a win could re-energise their challenge but had to settle for a 1-1 draw despite taking the lead.
Tuchel, though, believes his players have been dealt a tough hand recently in terms of their scheduling, and they are in urgent need or a rest.
"I answered this question a hundred times, if you look at our situation of long-term injuries, of key players injured, and of Covid and you look at our schedule you will have the answer," Tuchel said.
"We are mentally tired and physically tired, you can see it in our performance, it's as easy as that. We need to recharge the batteries, we need to reconnect.
"This is my feeling, that's why I give the players two days off and then we will use Friday and Saturday to prepare for Sunday."
It was another frustrating night for Tuchel and Chelsea, with Hakim Ziyech's first half opener cancelled out by Adam Webster on the hour.
"It's very, very tough to play at Brighton and they played it like a cup game, the noise at the whistle at the end was like we lost the game and this can very easily give you the impression that we lost but we didn't," he said.
"Other teams will struggle to get points here and it's even tough if you're not tired. There are some obstacles to overcome here and I simply refuse to be angry because it's not about the ambition.
"We were a bit lucky to be 1-0 ahead and you can take advantage of it and score a second one but we struggled to show the quality. We demand a lot from us but it's not the time to be too harsh."
