If given the choice of opponent for Chelsea's first game of the Premier League season at Stamford Bridge, Thomas Tuchel would not have picked Tottenham Hotspur. Yet that – and former head coach Antonio Conte – is what awaits the Blues on a baking hot August afternoon.
"It is what it is – it's also very exciting because you feel the tension in the house," Tuchel said during his pre-match press conference. "People will be excited to watch and follow. In general, we'd like to have more time, me especially. But we don't.
"We don't have time as in football, you need to be ready at the moment and soon be ready twice a week to be competitive and live up to our own standards. They took advantage of the situation [stability at the club] this summer, which is fair enough, which is what they do in this kind of league.
