Tuchel’s Seville rights act
BOSS TO GET OVER FIRST LOSS PAIN IN SPAIN
THOMAS TUCHEL admitted that Chelsea’s humbling by West Brom was a “slap in the face” – but insisted that his team will bounce back tonight.
The Blues boss saw his honeymoon run of 14 games without loss come to a crashing and unexpected halt at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, as the struggling Baggies capitalised on Thiago Silva’s sending-off to romp home 5-2.
It was a result which, as West Ham won at Wolves on Monday night, saw Chelsea tipped out of the top-four spot they seemed certain to clinch.
Coupled with news of the training ground bust-up between Antonio Rudiger (inset)
and Kepa Arrizabalaga on Sunday, it seemed that suddenly the Tuchel bubble had spectacularly burst.
And coming just before a tricky Champions League quarter-final first-leg clash with Porto tonight in Seville, it was not the preparation Tuchel wanted.
But the German last night insisted his men will recover – and there is no question over their character.
The Blues boss said: “I have high demands from myself and the the results of the teams I coach, so that was a big slap in the face.
“If we needed a reminder, that was it. We will never accept conceding five goals at home.
“But it is my job not to get lost in my anger and disappointment.
“There are things we need to do better. It is the moment to improve.
“It is not a question of character. We showed a lot of character in the first 14 matches. Now we have a setback, maybe it reminds us that the race is not finished.
“It was our fault we lost, our fault we got a red card and our fault to gamble on the red card. Now we have to deal with the consequences.
“At Chelsea we hate to lose. It is about the reaction. We won together and now we bounce back together.”
The Chelsea manager, whose team are in the Champions League quarterfinals for the first time in seven years, warned: “Porto will play their role as an underdog. They are a very strong team in the Champions League. But we are strong enough to overcome them.”
N’golo Kante will return to the bench after his hamstring strain, while Christian Pulisic and Tammy Abraham are fit.