Thomas Tuchel refused to to 'make a drama' out of Chelsea's 4-1 defeat to Brentford, despite the Blues' collapse following Antonio Rudiger's opening strike. Vitaly Janelt's brace, Christian Eriksen and Yoane Wissa ensure it was a joyous afternoon for the travelling Bees supporters, as Tuchel's side struggled to repond.
It was not the ideal preparation before having to take on Real Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday. Though, it would not be the first time that Chelsea went in search of European success following a heavy defeat.
Tuchel does not believe that his stars already had one eye on the game and were overlooking Brentford. Instead, the German coach believes Chelsea were mentally tired and not fresh enough following the international break.
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Tuchel said in his post-match press conference: "Maybe if we lost 1-0 or 2-0, or starting too late. But this was not the case. We struggled in the beginning but I felt us more tired mentally. Not fresh enough. This is normal. Yesterday, we were wearing gloves and it was snowing in training. Today, it was very, very warm. Again, it's more difficult for us than them to play as the underdog and be well prepared for this match. We are well prepared but are in one half of a training session.
"It is more difficult, but in the context of all this I am ok with the first half. The half-time speech was like this. A reminder to keep on going, a reminder of where the spaces are, where we want to accelerate, where we want to stay patient, where we want to take more risks and it would come with more fluidity. And it did. We started very well. I did not see the distraction there so why should we be distracted and think about Real Madrid when we are one goal ahead. Maybe it was the general feeling that now we are ahead and have it, and we got punished for that."
Thomas Frank's half-time words were a reflection of the hope Chelsea provided for the first half. "I said to the players 'there is something in this game for us. So let's go go for it'. Then they put it in the top corner and I think 'Oh no not again'. Unbelievable finish for him but a great reaction.
