Thomas Tuchel Says Chelsea "Scored 5 Goals" In 4-2 Loss To Arsenal Before Blaming The Pitch
Thomas Tuchel was critical of his team's defending and the Stamford Bridge pitch after Wednesday's 4-2 loss to Arsenal.
Arsenal's second goal was the product of a neat team move and precise finish by Emile Smith Rowe. But their other three came directly as a consequence of errors by Chelsea players.
Arsenal's first was scored by Eddie Nketiah after Andreas Christensen had played a short back-pass.
Nketiah later netted his team's third following Malang Sarr's failure to clear the ball.
And Arsenal's final goal of the game came from the penalty spot after captain Cesar Azpilicueta had fouled Bukayo Saka, who stepped up to score himself.
At the other end Timo Werner and Azpilicueta got on the scoresheet for Chelsea.
Tuchel told Sky Sports after the game: "We scored five goals and lost 4-2.
"Three own goals, two regular goals for us and one for Arsenal. That makes it 4-2.
"I don't know if it's a defensive lack of conviction. If we have ball possession and invite these kind of mistakes, the opponent will score.
"I cannot remember any mistake in our favor of this calibre, of this quality.
"We don't get these goals, we give these goals away here in consecutive games, you cannot win Premier League matches like that."
Thomas Tuchel was not impressed with his team's defending against Arsenal
IMAGO/NurPhoto/Action Foto Sport
After blaming human error during his interview with Sky Sports, Tuchel turned his attention to another issue as he spoke to the written press.
"To say that the pitch is difficult to play here sounds like an excuse, but it is," Tuchel said, as quoted by The Athletic.
"It is a very difficult pitch we have here. It's not to our favor.
"The ball bounces very awkwardly in front of Andreas when he runs to play the ball. We had the same mistake against Real Madrid."
Chelsea have now lost three consecutive homes matches, having previously been beaten 4-1 by Brentford and 3-1 by Real.