Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel was not left too distraught by the dramatic late winner from Alisson for Liverpool, as the German insisted it makes the top four race ‘pretty interesting’ and ‘pretty tight’…
Tuchel was asked whether he watched Liverpool’s Premier League encounter against West Brom in the pre-match press conference as Blues prepare to face Leicester after losing to them in the FA Cup final.
The Chelsea gaffer shared that he switched on the television when the scores were still at 1-1 midway through the second-half, feeling ‘superstitious’, Tuchel decided not to follow the match any further.
Tuchel’s interest in a fixture that had massive implications for his own side ultimately won over the 47-year-old, who decided to check the scores on his phone in the 95th minute.
It was still 1-1 when the Blues boss first tracked the result, but when he took another look just a minute later he found that Alisson scored a dramatic late winner that will go down in Premier League history.
Tuchel joked that it made him ‘realise’ that ‘superstitions’ don’t ‘always work’ and exclaimed he ‘obviously took the wrong decision’ in even briefly watching the match, when all was fine beforehand.
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Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel commented on ‘superstitions’ as he discussed his late tracking of Liverpool vs West Brom which was quickly followed by Alisson’s winner… pic.twitter.com/UM2aiYvs9Y
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“Honestly, I came home in the afternoon, I switched on the tele (TV), I saw 1-1 in the middle of the second half. I thought “oh that’s not a bad result”, so I was a bit superstitious and did not follow.”
“When I checked on my phone, it was actually the 95th minute and still 1-1 and when I checked one minute later on my phone I had to realise that superstitions don’t always work, and maybe never!”
“It did not help not to watch it, obviously I took the wrong decision – if that had any influence.”
“Well like I said, it does not make things boring. It was a fantastic header, I saw it today, a fantastic header in the last minute that makes things pretty interesting and pretty tight. But, still it’s in our hands.”
“Like I said, somebody asked me after the (FA Cup) final if this was a ‘major setback’ for us for Tuesday – no, the setback was the Arsenal game, it’s our fault that it’s so close again and we left the door open.”
“Liverpool put a foot into the door, this is what they do, this is a strong team. Anyway, we had a huge effort to overcome them, to close the gap to them, to overtake them – this is what we did.”
“We can be absolutely aware of this huge performance that we did so far, but we want to finish the job and need to refocus today,”
“Forget all the other results and rely on ourselves because we are in the lucky situation that we can rely on ourselves and don’t have to look at other grounds.”
Chelsea sit in fourth and a point ahead of the Reds as top-flight sides prepare for the final two games of the season this week.
The Blues have the more difficult run-in with clashes against the side that were triumphant against them in the FA Cup final, Leicester, and Aston Villa on the final day of the Premier League campaign.
On the other hand, Liverpool face Burnley and Crystal Palace. Both sides could still secure a top four berth, should Leicester drop points in their difficult ties against the Blues and finally Tottenham.
Tuchel is certainly very articulate during his press conference and offers his honest and hilarious thoughts on matters.