Tuchel: Chelsea weren’t distracted by Real Madrid tie

Thomas Tuchel denied his team selection for Chelsea’s shock 4-1 defeat at home to Brentford was made with one eye on next week’s Champions League quarter-final tie with Real Madrid.

“Absolutely not,” Tuchel said when asked if he made changes with the Real game in mind.

“We selected the team because we thought it was the best team against Brentford. Not half an eye, not one per cent on Real Madrid.

“I felt us more tired, not physically tired but mentally tired. Not fresh enough.

“I did not see the distraction there. Why should we be distracted or think about Real Madrid suddenly when we are ahead? Maybe there was a general feeling, and maybe we got punished for it.”

Tuchel suggested the loss was nothing more than a blip and refused to “make a drama” out of the result.

The visitors stunned Stamford Bridge with three goals in a 10-minute period and Chelsea’s second-half crumble has drawn comparisons with last season’s 5-2 home defeat by West Brom.

“After so many wins and good results, I will refuse to make a drama out of this, why should we?” Tuchel said.

“Brentford made a lot of the 10 minutes we gave them. There was a feeling that this was not our day. We will dig in and try to find out the reasons.

“We will analyse and digest it. It’s hard to take because it’s very unusual what happened today.”