Thomas Tuchel makes Chelsea "box of champagne" claim about Liverpool and Man City

dailystar.co.uk:

Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel admits the club are way too far behind the big two at the top of the Premier League.Yet, at the same time, the Blues boss insists there is no disgrace in their failure to close the gap to the summit when Manchester City and Liverpool have streaked clear of the rest of the pack.Tuchel may have blown his lid over poor displays more times this month than in the previous 12 put together but he remains adamant his players have let nobody down over the whole 2021-22 campaign even though they have not been able to build too much on last season's Champions League success.Chelsea have not come close to matching pre-season expectations that, having won the European Cup last May, they would be authentic title challengers in a three-horse scrap for domestic glory.

However, despite his underachievers coming into the weekend a staggering 15 points behind the required pace to be Premier League champions, Tuchel this time declined to stick the boot in.Quizzed if Chelsea should be closer to Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp ’s unstoppable outfits, the German said: “There is room for improvement.

The gap is big but we are competing with, maybe, the two most successful teams that ever played in this league. Given our last two home games, the gap is bigger than it should be.

Before that, it was bigger than it should be but that was due to circumstances - not effort, quality or whatever.“It could have been smaller but the effort and ambition is there.