Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
SLAP OF HONOUR
Tuchel: I never saw WBA defeat coming..even when I watched video again I thought we would win..but it will make us stay humble
HIS spell was broken, after a 14-match unbeaten run, by a “slap in the face” from Big Sam – but Thomas Tuchel insists the bubble has not burst.
And in Seville, a city famous for its oranges, Tuchel has an opportunity to re-establish himself as the Chelsea politburo’s darling clementine.
As preparation for a Champions League quarter-final against Porto, conceding five at home to Sam Allardyce’s relegation-haunted West Brom was a wake-up call like a gunshot.
Then news of team-mates Antonio Rudiger and Kepa Arrizabalaga’s training-ground dust-up seeping out of the camp was another reminder for Tuchel that small leaks can sink giant ships.
Tuchel said: “I am not going to focus on who was the leak or whatever. I don’t want to lose my trust in the group, so I will accept it.
“Nowadays information comes out and that may not be what we want. It’s not nice, but if we have meetings they have to be confidential and stay in the meeting room.
“If we needed a reminder (to stay humble), we will take that result as a big slap in the face. Honestly, I could not see it coming, even after the match when I watched the video.
“I was tempted to bet a lot of money in the 45th minute that we would win the game.
“If it was required to remind us how tough it is to get clean sheets and keep winning, we keep it like this. It’s normal people create stories around this and it’s normal Porto are made the underdog.
“We come from a competition where we are able to lose 5-2 against the team 19th in the table, so we know how humble you have to be in every game.
“The guys hate to lose, so if we suffer a big loss in a weird game, it’s normal there are reactions.
“Clearly there are lines we don’t want to overstep, and this happened one day after the match, but now things are sorted out. My talk after the game isn’t to be too harsh or emotional, because the risk is you regret what you say. You have to accept we lost the game. “Even though we lost 5-2, we won all the statistics against West Brom – expected goals, touches in the box, shots on target. If we played the same game again, I bet 99 times out of 100 that we win.
“We will never accept a game where we concede five goals at home, even with a man down. We have to deal with the consequences – now is the next step in our development.”
Tuchel confirmed, despite the squabble with Kepa, defender Rudiger will start against Porto, with N’golo Kante fit enough to make the bench and Olivier Giroud (above) in contention to lead the line.