This wasn’t exactly how Thomas Tuchel would have imagined his 100th match as Chelsea manager. In the competition where he found such success just 17 months ago in the final against Manchester City, the German was powerless to stop Dinamo Zagreb recording a famous victory courtesy of Miroslav Orsic’s well-taken goal.
With their owner Todd Boehly watching on from the stands, Chelsea were outclassed in almost every department as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang endured a debut to forget after his deadline-day move from Barcelona, mustering a grand total of no shots on target from his 59 minutes on the pitch. It wasn’t much better for Tuchel, who was uncharacteristically haphazard with his tactics throughout and even deployed Raheem Sterling in central midfield for a large part of the second half. For the first time since he succeeded Frank Lampard, Chelsea have lost three consecutive away games and their problems are mounting.
