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Tuchel insists Chelsea must ‘toughen up’ after shock loss to Southampton
Tuchel insists Chelsea must ‘toughen up’ after shock loss to Southampton

Southampton came from behind to claim a terrific 2-1 win over Chelsea at St. Mary’s on Tuesday.

The Blues went ahead when Raheem Sterling scored his third goal in two games after 23 minutes.

However, Saints got themselves back in the game when Romeo Lavia unleashed a superb effort beyond Edouard Mendy after Chelsea failed to properly clear a corner.

Buoyed by the goal, Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side took control of the game and eventually went ahead when Romain Perraud picked out Adam Armstrong and his effort deflected off Kalidou Koulibaly and into the net.

The Saints now climb to seventh as a result of the deserved victory, level on points with Chelsea.

Speaking after the game, Blues manager Thomas Tuchel slammed Chelsea’s defending.

“Soft, soft, soft defending,” Tuchel said.

“There is no need to give shots away. Just toughen up as a team and show a different mentality.”

He added: “It is not enough to win away matches, it is not enough to play 20-25 minutes on the level we want. It is too easy to put us off balance, to beat us, to confuse us. It is too easy. It happened against Leeds. We need to understand why and find solutions.

“We lose concentration, we lose our plan and lose consistency, it is too easy to beat us.

“A lot of key players are injured, it is something I don’t really understand. You can always lose football matches and I am humble enough to admit this but in a match where you are in the lead there is no need to give away half chances. To have no answers in the second half was disappointing.

“We need to have answers, we need to step up and play a level higher if needed. We struggled to do this.”



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