Thomas Tuchel's frustrated character on the touchline wasn't a good message for Chelsea fans. His annoyance during the damaging 4-0 loss to Arsenal was clear to see and his statement after the game was just as worrying.
Whilst pre-season should be judged with an air of caution, it is tough to have go through bad preparation and then bounce back quickly for the league, which starts in an all too soon 13 days for Chelsea.
The German himself admitted that he's a "huge fan of a strong pre-season in everything: atmosphere, feeling, performance, belief," something that has severely been lacking from Chelsea's tour of America, at least on the pitch.
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It would be unwise to write the Blues off though. Although the current situation is damning, with peripheral squad players such as Michy Batshuayi and Ross Barkley being given continued chances, and a large group of players that seemingly have their heads in other places due to transfer wishes, Chelsea do still have a core of very good players, albeit not all of them currently at Tuchel's disposal.
They are still, for example, without N'Golo Kante, a player that Tuchel still has plans on making into Chelsea's own Kylian Mbappe. Plus, as Chelsea return to Cobham it is very feasible that attention turns strongly to his trusted group of players that he truly sees as being central to next season.
To highlight the position Tuchel has found himself in, the Champions League winning manager said, "I don’t know if I ever lost a match in pre-season 4-0. I can't remember not winning two matches in a row in pre-season.
"I am superstitious but not in a way that I say bad pre-season has to mean a bad season. That makes no sense to me. I am in it, a part of it, and need to find solutions."
He is a coach that has built a career on creating innovative ways out of tough spots and given that Chelsea still posses a core group of extremely talented players alongside an expected surge on the transfer market for additional recruits, it would be unfair to say that Chelsea have regressed.
The squad issues that existed last season and the season before, a long term problem at the club, still do so, but Tuchel now he has experienced professionals Raheem Sterling and Kalidou Koulibaly to add to the mix. The USA tour has been far from optimal and it does pale in the fortunes of Spurs and Arsenal, let alone Manchester City and Liverpool, but this was also a situation that Tuchel saw coming once the ownership change made planning at the end of last season almost impossible.
Speaking towards the end of the campaign, he said: "We have constantly been in the top three in the toughest league, we now compete with maybe the best teams to ever play in his league [City and Liverpool]. From there we go, put it into perspective and there is no need to lose sleep after this season but there is a lot of ambition in us that is not satisfied.
"I think it is good to admit it, not to be too worried it that we don't do this. I don't know where we are from day one [next season]. What I can promise is that I will be here - if I can promise that - and I will be here with full energy and positive energy no matter what.
"We will still work for Chelsea and I refuse to think of negative scenarios. We will be competitive, on which level we will see. On how the delay [completing the takeover] and sanctions will affect us, there is a risk.
"It will be very difficult to make up for the disadvantage, given the situation of the other two teams: City and Liverpool, who are already improving their squads and set one benchmark after another in all aspects of the game."
As it has played out, Tuchel is in the exact situation that he foresaw. Outgoings haven't materialised making true squad building hard, attitudes throughout are therefore mixed and causing problems. Business wasn't done early due to the sanctions and now Chelsea have a lot to do in two weeks to be competitive.
As the manager says, Chelsea have been effected. In some ways by structural issues that will take longer to iron out, in some ways by an unprecedented club sale, the constant is that Tuchel is still there, and his promise to make the club competitive should be a reassuring message during times of uncertainty.
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