THOMAS TUCHEL blamed a lack of maturity, international travel and even the crazy English weather as his Chelsea team were ripped apart by struggling Brentford.
The Blues boss confessed he had no idea why his players collapsed to a humiliating 4-1 defeat after taking a 48th-minute lead with an Antonio Rudiger 39-yarder.
He complained: “We worked so hard to open the scoring but after that we stopped defending and gave away three goals in ten minutes which completely killed the game for us.
“It’s on us. It’s our fault.
“I don’t know why, but we lacked maturity in our defending and we were not aware of the danger in these moments, which is very strange for us.
“It’s normal to feel leggy after the international break and my expectations for this match were not high because of that.
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“But you don’t need to lose like this as a consequence and it’s not as though we conceded the first two goals and were never able to catch up after that.
“I felt we were more tired mentally than physically and not fresh enough, which is not normal for us.
“But also yesterday, we were wearing gloves and it was snowing during training and then today it was very, very warm.
“It was also more difficult for us to play as the favourites than it was for Brentford as the underdogs because we only had half of a training session to prepare for this match.”
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Tuchel denied that his players had switched off because they were saving themselves for Wednesday’s Champions League visit by Real Madrid.
He insisted: “Absolutely not. We selected the team because we thought this was the best side for Brentford, not one percent for Real Madrid.
“Maybe you could say we were distracted if we’d started too late and gone down 3-0. But that was not the case.”
Delighted Brentford boss Thomas Frank said: “We timed it perfectly to score all our goals at the end where our fans were and that made it even more special.
“You work so hard in football, so many hours every day or the year and a lot of times you don’t think you get what you deserve.
Everything clicked for us and winning here against the European and World Champions was well deserved. It feels unreal.
Thomas Frank
“But today everything clicked for us and winning here at Stamford Bridge against the European and World Champions was well deserved.
“This is a big moment for the club and it feels a little bit unreal.
“I’m pleased that Christian Eriksen saved a goal for Brentford after he scored two for Denmark and what is happening for him is an ongoing fairytale.
“Right from the start I knew everything had been checked in his entire body and it wasn’t as though he had an injury like a cruciate ligament.
“So when he took the decision that he wanted to play in the World Cup and showed that determination to come back to football, I was never in doubt about him.
“I didn’t know he would come back to this level so quickly but he is a top player and he brings so much to the team in terms of his ability.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
