Chelsea and Thomas Tuchel need players to step up

When Manchester City defeated Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in September, many things were wrong with the host’s approach. It was so unlike what Chelsea fans had seen before under Thomas Tuchel. On Saturday, the approach was better, but the performance of certain players let everyone else down big time.

Not much blame can be made on Kevin De Bruyne’s goal. It was a brilliant finish. If anything, the slight move to the right Kepa Arrizabalaga made just before he dived can be called out. But other than that, the Spaniard was brilliant. The back five, along with N’Golo Kante and Mateo Kovacic, did their job without many errors.

However, that cannot be remarked about without mentioning the three attackers Tuchel opted to field at Etihad. Romelu Lukaku, for all his big talk, has yet to perform anywhere close to even a quarter of the sum the Blues spent to bring him. His all-around performances after the interview have improved for sure. But comparing his off-the-ball movements before and after the injury opens up one question as well. Was the improvement due to him settling well or him giving it all due to the potential backlash of the interview?

Nevertheless, no one can blame Tuchel for calling out Lukaku for his horrendous performance. John Stones and Aymeric Laporte were not at all tested by the Belgian. The pair was able to secure the ball easily. Whenever they didn’t, Lukaku himself made sure City had the ball soon with his dreadful touches and flicks which were never reaching any of his teammates. When Kovacic made a through ball to him, he was too incompetent to do anything with it. An intelligent striker would have looked where the goalkeeper was before attempting something like that.

Tuchel and Chelsea got the better of Manchester City thrice last season without Lukaku. In all of those matches, Chelsea always looked equal or better than Pep Guardiola’s side. That cannot be said about Chelsea with Lukaku leading the line. In both the matches this season, Chelsea never looked like they had a chance. Last season, players like Timo Werner and Kai Havertz gave City nightmares. As such it was a surprise that Tuchel left all three of the Champions League final starters up top.

Tuchel opted to leave Christian Pulisic and Hakim Ziyech on the bench against Tottenham midweek with Saturday’s match in mind. But both of them truly had a shocking performance. While City’s players were giving it all, those two looked tired and uninterested from the first minute. Ziyech’s passes were terrible which even made Tuchel jump off his seats with anger. Pulisic, who is known for his dribbling ability, rarely does that nowadays.

Comparing the two squads, Chelsea has more depth than City. But the difference is, Guardiola’s players know their role and they will give it all even if the result sometimes goes against them. That cannot be said about Chelsea’s players. On Saturday, Tuchel had to make sure multiple times that the players are keeping up the high line as he wanted.

Chelsea’s title challenge was over much before. The defeat was merely underlining the difference between them both. The gap was there last season as well, but when they faced each other Chelsea knew what to do all three times. That cannot be assumed this time around. They need to sort things soon or else it won’t be much longer before they see Arsenal going over them in the table.