roller coasters. Chelsea has been touring all states for ten days. On April 12, the English suffered a huge disappointment after their Champions League quarter-final elimination against Real Madrid, despite their 3-2 win in the return leg at the Santiago-Bernabéu stadium. Then the Londoners found a smile on Sunday after the success against Crystal Palace in the FA Cup semi-finals (2-0). They hoped to build on their momentum last night in a hot London derby against Arsenal. An important meeting in the race for Europe.
Tuchel has it bad
But the Blues lost 4-2 to the Gunners at home. A defeat that has not passed at all for Thomas Tuchel. In a press conference, the German technician let go. “It was a totally crazy, open game in the first half. It was 2-2 and we came back twice. We started well, but still gave away the first goal, it’s impossible to do this. But we do”† After that, the former Paris Saint-Germain coach added a layer.
“The number of consecutive fouls in games here at home is impossible at this level. You can’t see this. It’s just impossible, but we’re doing it now and you can’t win football matches like this (…) Look at the penalty… There’s no tactic behind it. We got three stray bullets in ten seconds. Then we make a mistake where there is not even the slightest danger. We foul someone, it’s a penalty and we lose six minutes to equalize. What is there to analyze? There is nothing to analyze.†
The German shoots his players
Reassembled, Tuchel continued: “Saying it’s hard to play on the pitch here may seem like an excuse, but it’s a very, very hard field that we have here. It doesn’t work in our favor. The ball bounces clumsily past Andreas when he wants to play that ball. But still we made the same mistake against Real Madrid that cost us the next round of the Champions League and this one cost us the game (…) We got seven goals here against Brentford and Real Madrid. It’s not just about individual players. A defensive performance is a team performance and an offensive performance is a team performance.†
Finally, he ended his press conference as follows: “This is the game for the players. They are all praised for playing like they did in the last three games (3 wins for Arsenal, editors note). And they have to face the reality that it is impossible to win games “When you make so many mistakes of this caliber. It’s just not possible. I haven’t seen this in any other game before and now I see it in several of our games and it has to stop.”† A good boost for his players from Tuchel.
