Jamie Carragher has revealed his admiration for Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel after the German coach tore a strip of his charges after losing 4-0 to Arsenal over the weekend.
With less than two weeks to go before the start of the 2022/23 Premier League season, Chelsea were humbled by an Arsenal side who were way better than their London rivals.
Gabriel Jesus scored his fourth goal of pre-season as Arsenal put Chelsea to the sword in front of 63,811 fans at Orlando. It left Tuchel fearing that his side will be undercooked when they run out against Everton at Goodison Park on August 6.
Tuchel revealed he was “far from relaxed” and said: “The worrying part is that the level of commitment physically and mentally for this match was far higher for Arsenal than for us.”
And Carragher believes Tuchel was well within his rights to voice his concerns after a result which sent shockwaves through the Chelsea support.
“I think it’s easy to downplay them [friendlies] when they don’t go well, we all know that,” Carragher told talkSPORT.
“I’ve been a player and we can say results mean nothing because it will be decided on the first game of the season. If you win, it doesn’t matter.
“But as a player or a manager there is nothing better than winning and playing well and building some sort of confidence.
“You can see the reaction of Thomas Tuchel after the Arsenal game. I quite admire the reaction. You’re still playing for Chelsea, you’re playing Arsenal, and it’s a big game.
“I know it’s a pre-season friendly but you shouldn’t be getting beaten 4-0. And I actually quite admired how seriously he was taking it.
Tuchel: ‘We are a club in transition’
“I don’t think they should massively be getting carried away. But I don’t think they should be getting massively beaten by Arsenal two weeks before the start of the season.”
Chelsea have added Kalidou Koulibaly and Raheem Sterling to offset the loss of Andreas Christensen, Antonio Rudiger and Romelu Lukaku. But Tuchel is well aware his squad need more arrivals in the next month.
“So we had an urgent appeal for quality players, a huge amount of quality players. We got two quality players but we are not competitive like this. Unfortunately you could see it today.
“We come from sanctions, we come from losing top-quality players, key players. We are a club in transition, in transition of ownership, we were behind in the transfer race and we were behind in the table. So we have things to improve.
“The signing of Raheem [Sterling] shows what we’re capable of doing, it shows the ambition of the club and the ownership and it’s good because we’re all here to win and compete.”