Tuchel bemoans ref stance on ’50/50′ tackle after ‘deserved’ Chelsea win

Lewis Oldham
Thomas Tuchel pitchside at Stamford Bridge

Thomas Tuchel insisted that he could not believe Chelsea were denied a goal in the first half before they triumphed via a “better performance” against Southampton.

Chelsea took the lead inside the first ten minutes. Trevoh Chalobah got the goal as he converted Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s flick-on from Ben Chilwell’s corner.

Timo Werner looked to have doubled their lead in the 41st-minute, but his header was ruled out by VAR. Tuchel was furious at this decision as he was shown a yellow card by Martin Atkinson in the aftermath.


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Southampton worked their way back into the game as they equalised around the hour mark. Their goal came via a James Ward-Prowse penalty.

The Englishman was in the thick of it again soon after. He was sent off for a late challenge on Chelsea‘s Jorginho.

The hosts made the most of this man advantage in the final ten minutes as Werner and Chilwell scored to earn them all three points. 

Tuchel told BBC Sport after the game that Chelsea showed that they were not “afraid to lose” against the Saints:

“For today we are top of the league and tomorrow there are still games,” Tuchel said.

“After two defeats we had to be careful that we didn’t start being too sad or too worried because there was a chance to be on 16 points.

“It was important to have a better performance than the last two games, that we sharpened our mindset so that we are not afraid to lose. It was nice to play the way we did and get a deserved win.”

On Chelsea’s disallowed goal: “I was very angry because I could never believe this could happen in the Premier League where you would go back to a 50/50 that wasn’t even in close connection to the goal.

“I understood before the season that we didn’t want soft touches, that we wanted a contact game.

“We are here today in the middle of London in the rain in an intense game but the ref disallowed the goal.”

On Ward-Prowse’s red card: “I did not even see it properly but it looked heavy and it was not necessary to take that kind of risk.”