CHELSEA boss Thomas Tuchel has revealed the five teams he believes will be fighting it out for the Premier League title next season.
The Blues spent the first half of the 2021/22 campaign battling it out with Manchester City and Liverpool for the right to become English champions.
Tuchel feels more teams will be involved in the title race next season Credit: EPA But as the season went on they fell away and finished in third, 19 points off champions Man City and just three ahead of fourth place Tottenham.
Tuchel’s side ended with a 2-1 win over Watford, and the German coach was asked after the game about next season’s title challenge.
And while he believes Manchester United and Spurs will be in the conversation along with City, Liverpool and themselves, he left out Arsenal – who finished fifth.
He said: “It will be a super tough race. Manchester United will be in the race, Tottenham will be in the race with Antonio Conte for sure, and we want to stay in the race.
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Tuchel ‘keen’ on takeover to be completed as Todd Boehly was spotted on pitch “And Liverpool and Man City will do everything to even make their squads bigger.
“They set the standard so, so high and it will take the same to be competitive next season.
“While like everybody else tries to close the gap to us…the two top teams are what they are, a benchmark of consistency.
“That’s the situation and from there on we do our very best to be competitive because this is what we want to be.”
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Outside of Man City and Liverpool, no team has come close to winning the Premier League since Chelsea lifted the trophy under Conte in 2017.
And the two main title protagonists have already strengthened their squads ahead of next season.
Man City have signed Borussia Dortmund striker Erling Haaland for £51million.
And on Monday, Liverpool confirmed the acquisition of Fulham teenager Fabio Carvalho.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk