Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel knows his club can hang with the best in the world, and that’s not a surprise considering the Club World Cup winners won the Champions League last season and lost two scoreless finals to Liverpool in penalties.
The second of those came Saturday, as Alisson Becker denied Mason Mount’s spot kick after both teams had missed once through six rounds and Kostas Tsimikas beat Edouard Mendy to put the FA Cup in Liverpool’s trophy case.
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“We proved four times this season that we can produce peak performances to compete with them at this kind of level,” Tuchel said. “All the results were deserved and could’ve gone our way or their way.”
Tuchel knows that his side needs to be better and deeper to contend for a Premier League crown but says that at this stage of the season injuries can make the difference in one-off games.
“The difference for me throughout the season is they can do it Wednesday-Saturday, Wednesday-Saturday,” Tuchel said. “They arrived with a big squad, everybody but Fabinho, in a good rhythm. We had many players out and, N’Golo with one training session and Mateo playing with an ankle that I didn’t know it was possible to fit into a shoe. This is where the gap comes from.”
And Tuchel wants everyone to remember that Chelsea followed up the Champions League with the European Super Cup and the Club World Cup.
It just so happens they aren’t close to mind.
“We have everything it takes to win trophies, we proved it by the way,” Tuchel said. “We have a Club World Cup and a European Super Cup and I don’t feel sorry this was at the beginning of the season and in winter.”
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Tuchel laments Chelsea’s second lost final to Liverpool in penalties originally appeared on NBCSports.com