Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel who oversaw the arrivals of Raheem Sterling and Kalidou Koulibaly at Stamford Bridge from Manchester City and Napoli respectively has pleaded to the club’s hierarchy for more transfers to Stamford Bridge after the Blues were humiliated by Arsenal.
Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal rounded off their perfect record in their pre-season tour to the USA beating Chelsea 4 – 0 as goals from Gabriel Jesus, Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka and Albert Sambi Lokonga clinched an emphatic win in Florida.
The 48-year-old former PSG boss had welcomed the transfers of Raheem Sterling and Kalidou Koulibaly at Stamford Bridge this summer but believes further reinforcements are urgently needed ahead of the new season.
‘I am far from relaxed,’ Tuchel said after Chelsea’s heavy defeat. ‘We were simply not good enough. We were simply not competitive.
‘The worrying part is that the level of commitment physically and mentally for this match was far higher for Arsenal than for us.
‘They played I think what is their strongest line-up and structure that you see now for several weeks. This was the line-up they will try to start for Premier League games.
‘It was surely not our strongest line-up. This is a part of an explanation but only a little part and the other part is worrying. I cannot guarantee we will be ready in two weeks.’
On the need for new signings, Tuchel added: ‘My analysing of the season does not change because of this game. Unfortunately, it proved my point.
‘The last week proves my point. I would absolutely prefer not to be right. I did everything to prove myself wrong but at the moment I feel that I was right.
‘I look at the last season and parts of the game where we struggled, parts of the season where we struggled, and then we got sanctioned and players left us and some players are trying to leave us, and this is where it is.
‘So we had an urgent appeal for quality players, a huge amount of quality players. We got two quality players but we are not competitive like this. Unfortunately you could see it today.’