Thomas Tuchel contrasts Chelsea and Man City seasons ahead of blockbuster Premier League clash
As reported by the club’s official website, Chelsea head coach Thomas Tuchel has talked about the biggest difference between Chelsea and Manchester City so far this season. His comments were made ahead of his side’s Premier clash against the defending champions.
Man City sits 10 points ahead of the Blues in the league table at this stage in the season. A win against Pep Guardiola’s side would help reduce the deficit and put some pressure on the Manchester club going into the second half of the campaign.
Tuchel explained that as far as he was concerned, Man City are ahead of them because they dealt better with injuries and the Covid situation. The German, meanwhile, struggles to compete with his depleted squad.
“Maybe it is unlucky, maybe they do it better or whatever but they have less injuries to key players and they did not suffer from Covid as we did over many weeks. This is the huge difference because we had some draws in the season that were unnecessary and if you have your full squad, you create a certain atmosphere for everybody that pushes everybody to that edge that you need if you want to compete with them.”
Chelsea are struggling with an injury crisis in defence at the moment, with full-backs Ben Chilwell and Reece James ruled out for a significant part of the season. They have not been spared by the coronavirus either, with centre-back Andreas Christensen set to miss the City clash after returning a positive COVID test.
The Blues boss admitted that in his side’s previous encounters with the Manchester club, he had a full squad in good shape and form to tackle them with. This Sunday, however, he faces an uphill task against a Man City side that are very strong and consistent at the moment.
Tuchel also questioned the way some games were being called off more due to injuries and international call-ups than positive COVID tests. The German has seen his side struggle to deal with the COVID outbreak, and wanted the same rules for everybody when it comes to the coronavirus.
“I strongly, strongly hope that’s not the case, because otherwise I would be very, very angry because we are doing everything to make games happen. We were made to play when we thought we should maybe not, so I can only strongly hope that the rules are the same rules for everybody.”
After a solid start to the season, we have seen some sloppy performances and questionable defeats derail our quest for the Premier League title. Injuries and COVID have not helped us, but it would be futile to use these as an excuse when we are aware of our team’s quality and depth.
Tuchel will be happy to see the return of Thiago Silva and N’golo Kante before the City clash, as he will need all the experience and defensive solidarity we have to stop a free-flowing Manchester City side looking to defend their title.
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The Chelsea boss has also tinkered with his side against Spurs in both legs of the Carabao Cup and claimed victories in each tie. Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner played crucial parts and have hopefully rediscovered their form. We can hope that the attacking duo shows up on Sunday against City as well, to trouble their defence.
With Man City quite ahead of us in the Premier League standings, Sunday’s game against them would be the best way to mount some pressure on the defending champions. There is no better time than now to kick off a strong start to the second half of the season.
