The Blues take on Sheffield United at Bramall Lane with eyes on closing the gap on the teams above, while the Blades have sharpened in recent weeks, winning five of their last seven in all competitions.

A total of 16 different players have already started under the German’s charge, with Reece James the latest to come in for the win at Tottenham in midweek.

Given the quick turnaround and Thiago Silva’s muscle injury, Tuchel expects he may be forced to make alterations in Yorkshire.

‘We have only two days so maybe we need some changes to be sharp and physical again,’ he said.

‘We must be able to compete on the highest level against a strong and very physical Sheffield United side, which has won their last games.’

Tuchel has refused to get drawn into assessments of the battle for a top four finish, instead preferring to focus on finding improvements within his own team amid a congested schedule.

‘We cannot influence other results or what the other teams do,’ he insisted. ‘We have enough to do to take care about ourselves.

‘I know that there are too many teams between us and the Champions League places but my approach is to take it step by step. The most important thing now is we don’t lose the focus and we take care of the atmosphere in the dressing room so we are able to compete again on Sunday.

‘Once you raise your head up and look more than one game ahead, you lose your focus. I don’t know any other approach. Maybe other coaches do it differently but for me it’s not possible.

‘We prepare and then we wait for the next big match to arrive because it starts at 0-0 and if we want to get points we have to earn them.’