Coach Thomas Tuchel on Tuesday urged “soft” Chelsea to toughen up after a shock 2-1 defeat against Southampton plunged his spluttering team into English Premier League turmoil.
Tuchel’s side blew their lead at St Mary’s after Raheem Sterling put them ahead midway through the first half.
England forward Sterling bagged his third goal in two games with a close-range strike in the 23rd minute.
Photo: AFP
However, Chelsea had squandered a host of chances before Sterling’s opener and, not for the first time in Tuchel’s reign, their profligate finishing came back to haunt them.
Romeo Lavia equalized in the 28th minute with his first goal for Southampton, curling home from the edge of the area after Chelsea failed to clear a corner.
Adam Armstrong then put Southampton ahead on the stroke of halftime as he took Romain Perraud’s pass and drilled a deflected shot past Chelsea ’keeper Edouard Mendy.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Chelsea, beaten 3-0 at Leeds United in their previous away fixture, were unable to muster a response as they slipped to a second defeat from their last three games.
“Soft, soft, soft defending. There is no need to give shots away. Just toughen up as a team and show a different mentality,” Tuchel said.
With just two wins from their first five matches, the Blues are already five points behind leaders Arsenal, who were to play their game in hand against Aston Villa yesterday.
Despite a significant close-season spending spree, which is set to continue with several more signings mooted before today’s transfer deadline, Chelsea are struggling to find any sustained momentum.
While it is too early to write them out of the title race, Tuchel is likley concerned by his team’s latest sloppy display — with key mistakes at both ends of the pitch — having already criticized them publicly after the Leeds loss.
“It is too easy to put us off balance, to beat us, to confuse us. It is too easy. It happened against Leeds. We need to understand why and find solutions,” Tuchel said. “We lose concentration, we lose our plan and lose consistency. I don’t understand why we have so many injuries.”
“In a match where you are in the lead there is no need to give away half-chances. To have no answers in the second half was disappointing,” he said.
SERIE A
AFP, MILAN
Paulo Dybala on Tuesday shot AS Roma top of Serie A with a brace that sank AC Monza 3-0.
Argentina’s Dybala brought up his goal century in the Italian top flight after netting twice in the first 32 minutes at the Stadio Olimpico to put unbeaten Roma on 10 points from their first four games.
Roma, who also scored just after the hour through Roger Ibanez’s header from a Lorenzo Pellegrini corner, are two points ahead of third-placed AC Milan after the champions were held to a drab goalless draw at US Sassuolo.
“I really wanted to get a goal, and thankfully it happened here in front of our fans, so I’m really happy,” Dybala told DAZN, adding that it was “too early to talk” of a title challenge.
When asked which was the favorite of his 100 goals in Italy’s top flight, Dybala broke out into a wide grin and said: “The next one.”
DFB-POKAL
AFP, BERLIN
Timo Werner scored a first-half hat-trick as the DFB-Pokal holders RB Leipzig annihilated fourth-division side Teutonia Ottensen 8-0 in the first round on Tuesday.
Werner, who is his club’s all-time top goalscorer, scored twice in the space of 60 seconds to put Leipzig two goals ahead after 20 minutes.
Werner completed his hat-trick in the 43rd minute when he hammered in a pass from Swedish midfielder Emil Forsberg.
“It was fun. Those are some of the most unpleasant games, because you have to win and still don’t get any compliments for it,” Werner told ZDF.
Leipzig manager Domenico Tedesco said Werner, who returned from Chelsea earlier this month, is “on a very good path to achieving very, very good form.”
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