Thomas Tuchel admits Chelsea can’t compete for Prem title amid Covid and injury crisis after falling eight points adrift

THOMAS TUCHEL says it would be ‘stupid’ to think Chelsea can sustain a title charge with the amount of Covid and injury cases that have hit their squad.

His Blues side lost ground on Manchester City with a 1-1 draw against Brighton when Danny Welbeck’s last-gasp header chalked off Romelu Lukaku’s opener.

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But an arguably bigger blow came when Reece James was forced off with a hamstring injury midway through the first half, while Andreas Christensen had to be subbed at half-time with a back problem.

The German said: “We have seven Covid cases. We have five or six players out for six or more weeks.

“How should we compete in a title race? 

“Everyone else who has a full squad, everybody in training has the full power to come through this league. 

“We would be stupid to think we can do it out of Covid and injuries. Just play and everybody would be stupid to do it without 23 fit players.

“We knew before that this was going to be a tough match against a strong side.

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“They come well prepared, it is always like this. I have not seen one team play a nice match against them (Brighton).

“It was clear we would struggle, we have simply way too many players with who we don’t know what we can demand. 

“We have long injuries, they come from Covid, I simply don’t know what they are capable of doing.”

Tuchel was also raging that a penalty was not given for a foul on Christian Pulisic by Joel Veltman in the second half.

While he also did not understand why ref Mike Dean blew up for a foul from Mason Mount, before the Chelsea midfielder fired into the net, instead of letting the action continue and allowing VAR to decide.

The ex-Paris Saint-Germain boss fumed: “I would never usually say it but we have 100 per cent a penalty against Christian Pulisic.

“(There was) a 50-50 challenge from Mason Mount before the equaliser.

“The ball is going into the net, why does he need to whistle before the ball is over the line? Why? We have VAR to check, why can we not wait?

“If he decides then it is a foul then decide it but why is he so sure? Does he want to keep the tension up?

“The penalty is a joke, honestly a joke, not to interfere from VAR.”

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Tuchel has been calling for the return of the allowance of five substitutions in the Premier League to help ease the burden of Covid during the festive period.

And midfielder Jorginho echoed those sentiments ahead of the game, claiming it is ‘insane’ not to reinstate it.

The Italian told beIN Sports: “It’s very hard, because we don’t have time to rest. We need to play every three days and we have just three subs and that’s insane we don’t go for five.

“In my opinion it’s just too much. We should do something about it, because if we keep going like this, we’ll just have more players injured and maybe the quality of the game will go down, so that’s not the best for entertainment.”

Meanwhile, Brighton boss Graham Potter was brimming with pride as his side went toe-to-toe against a team with vastly more resources.

He said: “It’s not easy to come here. They have invested heavily in a top-class outfit and they are a different class to us.

“It’s not easy but I felt like we matched them. I can’t speak highly enough about the boys.”

On his goal hero Welbeck, Potter added: “If Danny is fit and if he is enjoying his football he is great for us.”

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