‘Coronavirus, injuries and war’: Thomas Tuchel answers Chelsea criticism with brutal explanation

Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel maintains his team has played a special season, despite two disappointing penalty shoot-out defeats to Liverpool at Wembley.

The Blues started the season with a great Super Cup victory before adding the Club World Cup trophy to it.

The Premier League title challenge faded away midway through the season, with injuries to flying full backs Reece James and Ben Chilwell knocking the Blues back.

Then the news of the government sanctions on Roman Abramovich left the German manager with so much more to deal with than he had bargained for.

The Carabao Cup defeat to Liverpool was considered hard luck, but the FA Cup fall to the same opponent a few months later has seen some fans question the manager, during a season that has seen them lose their Champions League title and walk away without a domestic cup.

Some fans can’t wait for the season to end, with injuries to key men, new ownership and players leaving at a crucial time, but manager Tuchel says it’s been a very good season despite the cup disappointments.

The Chelsea boss said: “I refuse to judge the season by two penalty shootouts.

“If we won both, it would be one of the most successful seasons with four titles.

“We lost two but it doesn’t make it less impressive what the team put in.

“But we’re the first to admit that it’s not the same to play a final and win a final.

“So it’s a bit of an imbalance judging the season given the circumstances.

“We struggled with coronavirus, long-term injuries, a war that had a big effect on our club in particular.

“There’s always room for improvement but we arrived in this [FA Cup] with key players out, Mateo and N’Golo with only half a training session, with the club sanctions, there are a lot of things that are impressive.

“Hopefully, we can come third and that is progression. We maybe compete against the best teams to play in this league. So from there we go.

“There is no need to lose sleep and think we should’ve done this and this. There is a lot of ambition in us that we are not satisfied with.”

Chelsea cannot finish higher than third but they would love to grab victories against Leicester, who visit Stamford Bridge tomorrow night, and already relegated Watford over the weekend.