New boss must catch rivals... or else

where we want to end up – of course we do everything to jump to the first four places. This is absolutely no problem. “From the start of next season we want to be ready to close the gap to Manchester City, Liverpool. We have FALSE START: Tuchel with Silva after Wednesday’s draw to be ready to compete for the title when the season starts.

“But this year it is about the Champions League and FA Cup. To speak about the Premier League title is not realistic because there are too many teams between us.”

Furthermore, Tuchel accepts that if he does not achieve all this, and cannot come up with a good enough explanation, he will not be working at Stamford Bridge for very long.

“If we have reasons in the end that we didn’t make it, I will tell you the reasons,” Tuchel promised.

“If you think then this is excuses, if the board is not happy and thinks, ‘No, he’s not telling the truth’, OK, that’s it.

“If the reasons are reasonable we will try again.”