Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel has explained why his side are so far away from Liverpool and Premier League leaders Man City in this season's title race.
The west London outfit are in action on Sunday against West Ham United. Chelsea were tipped to challenge for the Premier League after winning the UEFA Champions League last season and signing Romelu Lukaku from Inter Milan for £97million.
But with a handful of games left to play, Chelsea find themselves 14 points off the Reds and a further 18 behind City, though Sunday's fixtures could close that gap. Lukaku has struggled in his return to English football, only scoring five goals in 21 appearances. A UEFA Champions League spot is likely with the club sitting in third - and they have two games in hand on Arsenal in fourth and Tottenham Hotspur in fifth.
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Addressing why his side were unable to maintain a prolonged title challenge having entered the season as favourites by many pundits, Tuchel said that his side failed to finish games throughout the term and that the back to back defeats to Brentford and Arsenal in the past two games is a clear sign that 'the gap is that big to City and Liverpool.'
Tuchel said: “We tried hard to close the gap. I could say that I tried everything and I would say that everybody in the building tried everything, the players as well, but there is room for improvement.
“The gap is big, but we are competing with maybe the two most successful teams that ever played in this league, so the stakes are high. Given the last two defeats at home, the gap is bigger than it should be and before that it was bigger than it should be. But that was due to circumstances, not due to our effort or quality or whatever.
"The effort is there, the ambition is there and it’s no problem to be ambitious but maybe not reach it. It would not suit us if we played it down and told everyone before the season that we would open a box of champagne if we were fourth. We tried, we tried hard at some points, to get over the gap, but we have seen now dramatically in the last two games against Brentford and Arsenal why the gap is that big to City and Liverpool.
“They don’t have these matches in their season. We are ninth in the home table, we conceded late goals against Burnley and Everton, and these were absolutely games where we dominated and had big chances but struggled to convert our chances and from that the gap was growing. Now we have to be the best we can be and we will be ready for a good fight from next season on.
"But we don’t feel ashamed and we should not feel ashamed and we should not feel disappointed because in general it is very tough to end up in the top four and from there we try to compete.”
