Tuchel knows talk is cheap in a title race
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THOMAS TUCHEL has told his Chelsea players the time for talking about winning the Premier League title is over.
The Blues boss was keen to remind his squad that while they may be top of the table after 11 games, the league is a marathon and it is no good just starting strongly.
“Liverpool and Manchester City have the consistency which we need,” said Tuchel.
“That is the part we need to prove, because we have proved over 90 minutes that we can beat everybody.
“Those teams did it over years. They challenge each other and push each other to an amount of points that has been really impressive. We have to prove this point.
“If you go on a journey, the most important thing is that at some time you stop talking, stop planning and actually do the first step. Close the door, turn the key and go.
“I have the feeling we are on our journey. But when things get rough, we have to keep on going.
“There will be rain. There will be tough matches, opponents who make our lives not easy, but we have to go through it and stick together.”
Chelsea have won the Premier
League only once in the last six years, under Antonio Conte in 2017. There have
by TONY BANKS been plenty of other trophies, including the Champions League under Tuchel (below) last season.
And the German pointed out that plenty of his squad are still waiting to savour the moment of finishing top of the pile.
Of the team which is likely to take on Brendan Rodgers’ Leicester side today, only Cesar Azpilicueta, Marcos Alonso and N’golo Kante – who also won it at Leicester – remain from that 2017 Conte side.
Hakim Ziyech has a league winners’ medal in his locker while at Ajax and Brazil’s Thiago Silva is another, with AC Milan and Paris St-germain, but is not likely to play after international duty.
Both Romelu Lukaku (Anderlecht and Inter Milan) and Mateo Kovacic (Dinamo Zagreb and Real Madrid) are injured.
Tuchel added: “There are some guys here at Chelsea waiting for league titles.
“We have a young team that is maybe not so used to winning. It’s very important for these guys to step into a club like this which demands winning and titles. “There is no reason now to talk about big titles. There is no other way to win a marathon than to be
good in all parts.
“If you have a good start, who cares?”