Thomas Tuchel Makes Damning Admission After Chelsea Drop Points vs Brighton

• Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel was angry at some of the refereeing decisions against Brighton
• The Blues were pegged back deep into injury time to draw 1-1 against a determined Brighton side
• The Chelsea boss also admitted it would be hard to compete in the title race with his current depleted squad

Thomas Tuchel was left fuming at some of the referee’s decisions in Chelsea’s frustrating 1-1 draw against Brighton and Hove Albion on Wednesday, December 29.

Danny Welbeck’s injury-time goal cancelled out Romelu Lukaku’s first-half header, ensuring the Blues once again dropped crucial points in the title race.

Chelsea, who were already depleted in their squad by injuries and COVID-19, now find themselves eight points behind leaders Manchester City, having played the same number of games.

Speaking after the match, Tuchel was adamant his side should have had a penalty in the second half in an incident involving Christian Pulisic.

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Pulisic went to the ground after a challenge from Joel Veltman but referee Mike Dean saw nothing wrong with the tackle.

The Blues also felt hard done by the ref’s decision to penalize Mason Mount shortly before the England attacker rolled the ball into an empty net late in the game.

"Honestly, I would never normally say it, but we have a 100 per cent penalty against Christian Pulisic and we have a 50-50 challenge from Mason Mount right before the equaliser when the ball is going into the net," Tuchel said in the post-match press conference.

"Why does the referee even need to whistle before the ball is over the line? We have VAR to check. Why can we not wait and then check it, and then if he decides it's a foul, decide it then?

An angry Tuchel goes on to say that the failure to consult the VAR on the penalty decision was “a joke”.

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Injury problems

On his side’s depth, Tuchel said his side justifiably struggled in the game because of their injury setbacks.

Wingback Reece James also had to leave the Brighton clash early because of a hamstring problem, while Andreas Christensen also suffered a back injury.

"We knew before that this was going to be a tough match against a strong side," he added as quoted by Sky.

"They come well prepared. It's always like this. I have not seen one team play a nice match against them, so it was clear we would struggle.

With Chelsea now eight points behind leaders Manchester City who beat Brentford on Thursday, Tuchel provided little hope of the Blues closing the gap.

"We have seven Covid cases, we have four or five key players out for six or more weeks," he said. "How should we compete in a title race?" the gaffer posed.