Thomas Tuchel was left ‘angry’ with his own team selection after Chelsea gave up vital ground in the top-four race following defeat by Arsenal last night.
Emile Smith Rowe’s winner, sparked by a misplaced backpass from Jorginho, completed Arsenal’s first double over their London rivals since 2004.
Chelsea made seven changes ahead of this weekend’s FA Cup final against Leicester and afterwards manager Tuchel regretted his rotation.
‘I’m a bit angry that we had so many changes, that’s on me. I’m not so happy with the line-up,’ he said.
‘It was totally our fault, nobody else’s… we did everything today to lose,’ he added. ‘We forgot to score at the other end and then scored an own goal practically.’
The German insisted it was ‘not a deserved win’ for Arsenal, even claiming: ‘I don’t know how Arsenal would’ve scored if we didn’t give it to them ourselves.’
But he nevertheless felt his side lacked their usual intensity and attitude, admitting he sensed something was up during training on Tuesday.
He refused to explain his comments but instead hopes this proves a ‘final wake-up call’ ahead of Saturday’s clash with Leicester. ‘Maybe we deserved this today, we learn something,’ Tuchel said.
Chelsea saw a Christian Pulisic effort chalked off for offside after a video assistant referee review, while Rob Holding escaped punishment for blocking Mason Mount’s shot with his hand on the goalline.
Kurt Zouma and Olivier Giroud struck the bar within seconds of each other at the death, but the Blues could not force a breakthrough and slumped to just their third defeat in 26 matches under Tuchel.
The frustrated German was sorely tempted to label Chelsea unlucky – but insisted instead he must carry the can for making seven changes ahead of the FA Cup final against Leicester.
‘You can say now, it’s an easy one to say, that this is a totally lucky win and nobody can argue with that, because it’s not a deserved win for Arsenal,’ said Tuchel.
‘But I don’t want to go there because we all lacked the right energy and focus, so we didn’t deserve it.
‘And maybe I gave some signals to the team with changes that Saturday is on my mind.
‘Even if it’s one per cent or five per cent, this is not how we approach things, because you get punished. It’s hard to swallow, hard to accept, but there’s no other way.’
COMMENTS