Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Robert Mann

Thomas Tuchel gives incredibly bizarre reason for Chelsea's defeat to Arsenal

Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel stormed out of his post-match interview after giving a strange excuse for the defeat to Arsenal on Wednesday night.

The Blues had twice fought back from going a goal down in the first half, but were unable to recover after the break.

A double from Eddie Nketiah, coupled with Emile Smith Rowe's strike and Bukayo Saka's late penalty were enough to claim all three points for the Gunners.

All four of the visitors' goals were rooted in defensive errors, with Andreas Christensen, Malang Sarr and Cesar Azpilicueta all having nights to forget.

But Tuchel refused to blame his players for the defeat and instead bizarrely pointed to the pitch at Stamford Bridge as the root cause of their problems.

He explained: "I don't take a player out because he does one mistake. To say that the pitch is difficult to play here, maybe it sounds like an excuse. But it's a very, very difficult pitch that we have here.

"It's not to our favour. And the ball bounces very, very awkwardly in front of Andreas Christensen when he wants to play this ball, but still, I mean we had the same mistake against Real Madrid."

After his comments, Tuchel's use of the pitch as an excuse for his side's defeat was met by a withering response from fans.

Many blasted the German for picking fault with his own club, branding him as "embarrassing".

Next up for the Blues is another home game, this time against West Ham, where the pitch will be under the spotlight following Tuchel's damning assessment.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.