Thomas Tuchel has blamed ‘tiredness’ both physically and mentally as his team dropped even more points to almost guarantee that their chances of securing the Premier League title this campaign are over.
Despite taking the lead against Brighton through a stunning strike from Hakim Ziyech, they were pegged back in the second half as Adam Webster found himself unmarked and fired his team level from a free header.
Although Chelsea are through to the Carabao Cup final, there isn’t much to celebrate for the Blues in the league at the moment, and Ziyech even confused fans as he didn’t even celebrate his goal against Brighton.
- Tuchel reacts to Ziyech’s furious exchange with Lukaku in Chelsea’s draw
- Lewandowski explains why he voted for Jorginho ahead of Messi & Ronaldo
- Bruno Fernandes warned over pitch conduct & ‘team-mates who don’t like him’
But Tuchel has blamed Ziyech’s lack of celebration, and Chelsea’s lack of cutting edge on ‘tiredness’ as they played their 15th game since the beginning of December.
Tuchel spoke to BT Sport after his team drew 1-1 with Brighton, and said: “We looked tired, and we are. It’s like this, we knew they were well prepared, they had more time and less games to prepare for this match.
“You see at the end the reaction after the whistle, the stadium celebrated like a victory. That’s what you face.
“We need our full strength to overcome this obstacle at the moment, it’s difficult so no blame for the team. They tried everything but you can see they’re mentally tired.”
BT reporter Des Kelly questioned Tuchel on whether Chelsea’s tiredness was the mixture of mental fatigue and physical exhaustion, and the Chelsea manager quickly replied with: “Of course. Look at our schedule.
“We need some days off. We have two days off and two days to prepare for the next match against Tottenham. Then the boys need some days off, there’s no other solution.”
“Of course you can survive with this goal, we can play with a clean sheet, but we were under pressure,” Tuchel said.
“That’s normal. I didn’t see many teams control Brighton over 90 minutes. It’s normal they play brave and bring people to your box and create chances.
“If you can maybe take a chance or half chance for a second goal you can go out and win. That’s what we’d normally be up to. In the moment it’s difficult to be too harsh on our players because I know what’s going on.
“He can score 20 more and not celebrate. No problem”
