Ahead of a crucial trip to Juventus, Thomas Tuchel offered his opinion about Chelsea’s tag as the Champions League favorite squad.
Despite winning the UEFA Champions League last season, Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea is still considered an underdog to win this season’s title. It was more of the same compared to last season, when they were also considered underdogs. This favorite status is left for massive clubs such as Manchester City, PSG, Real Madrid or Manchester United. But Chelsea somehow stays away from the pressure that comes with being considered the favorite.
Compared to last season, these Blues have a much more competitive side. With Lukaku as their new striker, there is no doubt they will fight to win the title this season. Also, other players such as Hakim Ziyech or Timo Werner can make major improvements. Tuchel knows how to use all the pieces of his puzzle in order to find the ideal path to victory. Tomorrow, they play against a depleted Juventus that just lost Cristiano Ronaldo.
Tuchel knows Chelsea are not favorites.
As per Chelsea’s website, this is what Tuchel just said: “It’s hard to be seen as an underdog when you just won the title. We were not the favorites last season but we got better with every match, and grew in confidence. We were seen as real contenders very late in the competition and that can sometimes help. Now it is easy to make us the favorites. We have the experience and that brings a higher value to play against us. It is a higher motivation to play against us, and we have to accept this.
“There is no secret. We like the role of being an outsider or a challenger to the title, which we still are. I don’t think we are the favorites, but we showed everybody what performances we are capable of. It’s very important we make ourselves free from these expectations, and these expectations do not become our expectations. We need to stay realistic. We demand high standards and the better we do this, the better for our performance.”
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