Thomas Tuchel has played down the significance of Hakim Ziyech’s altercation with Romelu Lukaku during Chelsea’s 1-1 draw with Brighton.
Chelsea have lost even more ground in the Premier League title race as they laboured to a draw at the Amex Stadium on Tuesday.
Ziyech opened the scoring for Chelsea, who created little throughout the game, but Brighton pulled level through Adam Webster’s header in the 60th minute.
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Ziyech and Lukaku were both criticised by Tuchel for their display in Chelsea’s defeat to Manchester City last week, and the midfielder chose not to celebrate and stared towards the dugout after his goal against Brighton.
Asked if Ziyech’s muted celebration was a furious response to the criticism, Tuchel told BT Sport: ‘Well, hopefully. ‘Yeah, I’m happy. He can score 20 more and not celebrate, I’d have no problem.’
Tuchel was also asked about Lukaku and Ziyech being in conversation and whether the duo are trying to work on getting a better understanding.
‘I hope [they are] as well,’ said the Chelsea manager. ‘It’s normal that they talk, it’s normal that they are not happy, it’s normal that they don’t like it if we say that we want more from them, it’s normal.
‘But I think even from the reaction of the goal you can see we’re tired. We’re relieved that we have a goal but it’s not the pure joy because they’re saving energy even then. That’s my feeling of the team right now.’
Tuchel believes his Chelsea players look ‘tired’ and has already given them two days off before their next game against Tottenham on Sunday.
‘We look tired, and we are. We knew they were well prepared, we knew they had more time, less games to prepare for this match,’ said Tuchel.
‘You see at the end the reaction after the [final] whistle the stadium celebrates [the draw] like a victory. That’s what you face.
‘We need our full strength to overcome these obstacles, in the moment it’s difficult so no blame for the team, we tried everything but you can see we are mentally tired.
‘We need some days off, we have two days off and then we have two days to prepare our next match at home against Tottenham and then the boys need some days off. There’s no other solution.’
