CHELSEA manager Thomas Tuchel was unsparing in his assessment after his side were beaten 4-2 at Stamford Bridge by London rivals Chelsea.
Eddie Nketiah scored twice, with Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka adding the other goals. Timo Werner and Cesar Azpilicueta struck for Chelsea who came back twice before the persistent Arsenal pulled away.
Tuchel, weirdly, complained about his home ground’s playing surface and laid into his players for making too many mistakes to hand Arsenal the three Premier League points.
The defeat was the third consecutive one for Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, the first time since 1993 they would lose three straight home games.
Tuchel insisted that the pitch had something to do with those defeats.
“The pitch is difficult to play here. Maybe it sounds like an excuse but it’s a difficult pitch we have here,” he said in his post-match interview.
“It’s not to our favor. The ball bounces very awkwardly in front of Andreas. We had the same mistake against Real Madrid.”
The former Borussia Dortmund manager did not spare his players, however, accusing them of performing below the standard expected of them.
“It’s impossible to win matches like this if you make mistakes like this. I don’t see it in any other matches but I see it in consecutive matches,” an apparently angry Tuchel said.
“We are not satisfied. We now have three home defeats with an incredible amount of mistakes. We need to find a solution. I don’t have one right now. It is completely on us. A number of individual errors you cannot overcome.
“You cannot give three goals away for nothing. I hate losing and losing three times at home is unacceptable. I have no interest in praising or criticising individual players today after a team performance like this.”
Tuchel then pointed out crucial moments in the game that led to the defeat, while admitting that he also contributed to the disappointing result.
“Look at the penalty (scored by Saka to make it 4-2), and it is an unbelievable goal from our ball possession. There are no tactics behind that. We have three ball losses in ten seconds,” Tuchel noted.
“Then we do a foul where there’s not even the slightest danger. We foul a person, it is a penalty, and we rob ourselves of six minutes for an equaliser. What is there to analyse? There’s nothing to analyse.
“I include myself, we were not on the highest level but individually how we concede the goals is dramatic mistakes, individual mistakes like the first, third, fourth goal. Completely individual mistakes from us. It’s so hard to start with 3-0.”
While the result boosted Arsenal’s top four chances as they drew level with fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur in the table, Chelsea remain in third place, five points clear of both North London clubs.
