Chelsea boss Tuchel unsure whether Prem suspension ‘would help’

Chelsea head coach Thomas Tuchel is unsure whether a Premier League suspension “would help” to limit the spread of Covid-19.

The Blues faced Wolves in the Premier League on Sunday and the rivals drew 0-0 at Molineux.

Prior to the game, Chelsea requested for it to be postponed as they have returned several positive Covid-19 cases.

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Tuchel was “angry” that his side were forced to play and in a statement from the club, they said they were “deeply disappointed” at the decision.

A Premier League suspension was discussed on Monday after six games were called off over the weekend. The clubs opted to continue and the Carabao Cup quarter-finals are taking place this week.

Chelsea travel to face their London rivals Brentford in the last eight on Wednesday evening. As quoted by BBC Sport, Tuchel has said that he does not have a “solution” for the Covid-19 situation:

“I understand it is not easy to postpone games but for isolated situations like ours, we thought we had a strong case.

“I shared my thoughts with everybody and we accept the situation. We accepted the challenge and we will accept the next challenge.

“I don’t know if [a stoppage] would help and I don’t want to give the impression I have the solution. They were my thoughts, particularly for the last two days around the Wolves game and coming into it. That was my concern.”

Tuchel also discussed the availability of his players. He confirmed that everyone that has the virus are doing okay:

“The players are OK, that is most important. They cannot be back, they are out for 10 days before they can be released.

“We don’t really know when they can play or not but first off all they are 10 days out. Nobody is back from there, except for Jorginho. Andreas Christensen is very doubtful and same for Trevoh Chalobah.”

Tuchel has confirmed that Lewis Baker has tested positive for Covid-19 and that N’Golo Kante won’t feature in midweek:

On Kante, he added: “N’Golo Kante played 90 minutes against Wolves which was close to irresponsible. Will he be in the squad tomorrow? No.”

Wednesday night’s game is Chelsea’s first of three in just eight days. Tuchel went onto say that it is “quite exciting” to be involved in the Premier League festive period for the first time:

“This is quite exciting. I watched it when I was not involved, now I am in the middle of it.

“It is nothing new to play three matches in a week but without nine or 10 players it is challenging, so we struggle a little bit but we’ll find solutions.”