Tuchel explains why he left out Chelsea trio against Man City

Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel said he felt it was necessary to rest players against Manchester City after such a tough run of matches.

Tuchel made five changes to the starting line-up from the Champions League win against Real Madrid, which he admitted took its toll.

“It was a huge effort, not only physically but mentally,” he told Sky Sports.

“We’ve had one day less to recover and we’ve had to travel, so we needed to do some changes. But that shows we have faith in the rest of our squad.”

Billy Gilmour is among those given starting places, while Mason Mount, Thiago Silva and Ben Chilwell are not even in the matchday squad.

Tuchel explained: “The risks, if you want to call it that, from making changes are that the players may lack a bit of rhythm or confidence, but there is no doubt these decisions were not possible. We have some overloaded players who are at risk of injury so we have to manage this also.

“We left Mason Mount, Thiago Silva and Ben Chilwell at home for that reason, but the others deserve to play. It’s a very tight schedule, we need to adapt and manage it.”