Thomas Tuchel admits Chelsea 'did not believe' in themselves against Man City
By Tom Gott
Thomas Tuchel has admitted that he did not feel as though his Chelsea side believed they could beat Manchester City when the two title rivals butted heads on Saturday.
City walked away with a 1-0 victory that could hardly have been more deserved. They dominated in every aspect and prevented the Blues from even managing a shot on target - the first time they have failed to do so since Tuchel arrived.
It was a bitterly disappointing performance from Chelsea, and after the game Tuchel admitted that his side simply did not have enough about them to extend their winning streak over Pep Guardiola.
"We lost the game and City deserved to win," he told BT Sport. "I think for 60 minutes, we were very strong in the last 20 metres of the field, but unfortunately there are 80 metres left where we were not good enough today to escape pressure, to have ball possession to hurt them or grow in confidence.
"The performance was not complex enough. Overall, simply not on our very best level and you need your very best level for a game like this.
"After the goal, it felt like the belief in winning was bigger than the fear of losing.
"I did not feel the belief that we could escape with short passes. I did not feel that we believed in the long ball. We were like we were protecting something, it felt like we had something to lose. It can happen."
Tuchel also confessed that his side were struggling physically in the build-up to the contest and admitted he could have done more to combat that.
"We lacked a little bit of freshness also," he said. "NG [N'Golo Kante] has been ill for a few days but I decided to let him start. Jorginho has some problems, Thiago [Silva] could not start.
"Maybe this is on me. Maybe not the best choices today."