Thomas Tuchel has made an alarming admission ahead of Chelsea’s first game of the Premier League season against Everton.
Chelsea suffered an embarrassing 4-0 defeat to London rivals Arsenal in the final game of their pre-season tour in the United States on Sunday morning (UK).
The Blues will return to England disappointed with their efforts in America, with their only victory coming in the opening match in a 2-1 win over Club America in Las Vegas.
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While match fitness will have been built and there was an opportunity to see new signings Raheem Sterling and Kalidou Koulibaly make their debuts, there is still a lot of work to be done before the season kicks off.
Chelsea are looking to make more improvements in the summer transfer window, with Tuchel requiring a minimum of one more central defender.
Earlier reports in the window suggested that Todd Boehly had promised Tuchel up to six summer signings, but that now looks unlikely given the amount of issues the Blues have had in getting deals done.
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The closest they are to completing a signing at the current time is Sevilla’s Jules Kounde, while Chelsea had seemingly ‘won the race’ for the defender, Barcelona are making an attempt to hijack the transfer.
This is all too similar to the saga Chelsea had with Barcelona for the signing of Raphinha, the Blues had a fee agreed for the former Leeds United ace but had him stolen from under their noses by the Catalan club.
The west London side will be hoping they have done enough to convince Kounde to join, and avoid facing a repeat of what happened with the Brazilian winger.
Chelsea have got to make some moves, the performance against Arsenal showed just how much improvement needs to be made.
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Tuchel said: “I think we deserved to lose - which is fair enough - because we were simply not good enough. We were absolutely not competitive.
“The worrying part is the level of commitment, physical and mentally.”
With the season starting in less than two weeks, Tuchel was asked whether he felt his side would be ready.
He confessed: “I can not guarantee. I saw today a team in Arsenal who are mentally committed to an idea of playing, a level of exhaustion, a level of physical commitment that we could not match.
“Also, a level of mental commitment that we lacked because we have a lot of players who are thinking about leaving and looking at their options. We have players that have left and I think at the moment that’s obvious.”
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The opening game of the season sees the Blues take on Frank Lampard’s Everton at Goodison Park, and if they want to challenge for the title and ensure they are in the top four they need a positive start.
The signs from pre-season haven’t looked extremely positive so far, but there are still two weeks to go for Chelsea to lift themselves to be as ready as possible to face Everton.
Featured Image Credit: Chelsea FCTopics: Thomas Tuchel, Chelsea, Everton, Premier League, Football
