Following their late win over Arsenal yesterday, City extended their lead to 11 points, albeit having played a match more, before we take on Liverpool in our game in hand today.

However, Tuchel insists he and his team will never give up on their chances in the title race, even if they know our rivals’ advantage in terms of points on the board, player availability and consistency over many years mean it will be a tough challenge.

‘At this very particular moment the situation with Covid and injuries is the key advantage and the second thing is they take these advantages, they are relentless, they know what it takes to produce these high-point seasons over and again,’ he said.

‘It’s quality all over the club, not only in the squad but management and how the club’s run, it’s a winning machine. So it’s not only about having an advantage, it’s taking that advantage, and they are very good.

‘We have to admit where we came from, from one year ago. We have to be careful that we are ambitious but do not get frustrated by not catching Man City in the very first half-a-year. This can happen, but we have to dig in and we have to go through this because this is part of the process of closing the gap.

‘We don’t like it, everybody here wants to make it happen fast, everybody wants to have a close title race. Two or three weeks ago we had a super-close title race, everybody thought we had three teams competing. Now we lost the edge a little bit, I think because of circumstances that we cannot influence, and that gave them a certain advantage and they are in five or six years now of consistency.

‘That is what they have and it makes it hard. It does not make it impossible and we will never stop believing and never stop pushing, but we have to be realistic and at the moment we struggle.’

With a Pep Guardiola side leading the league, being keenly pursued by Tuchel and Jurgen Klopp, comparisons have been made between the epic battles between their Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund sides in Germany before all three moved to England.

They are not comparisons Tuchel minds, as our head coach highlighted the fact both he and Klopp learned all about what it takes to hunt down a strong and established favourite in a title race during their respective times in Dortmund.

‘As long as I am here at my Borussia Chelsea I will do nothing else than make other teams underperform,’ he added. ‘We will even try to make Manchester City underperform and we will not stop and I’m pretty sure Jurgen will do the same, try to get the best out of our teams, and we will not stop chasing and we will not stop believing.

‘This is the difference maybe between the situation right now and the Bundesliga, we have the belief. We have to face reality, it helps in life in general if you are not dreaming, and if you’re realistic and you look at the year 2021 then you have to admit that City have 20 points more than us and Liverpool. So we are the next in that race but it’s a big gap in points and goals scored. I said when I arrived we have to close the gap as soon as possible and we have tried to do it from day one and this will not stop.

‘Maybe it’s a longer race than only a one-season race to catch Man City, because they will not stop improving. I am absolutely convinced that if we are in the same place without injuries, having key players not out for weeks and being hit by Covid so hard at the same time, we have more points and we could still be close to them.

‘Everything maybe needs to fall into place for us so that we can produce that kind of consistent level that City and normally Liverpool can produce. That’s why there’s no need to get negative, there’s no need to lose faith. The opposite, we will stay hungry.

‘Jurgen did it with Dortmund and we came close to beating Bayern and were stopped unfortunately in the middle of the process, so I think both of us know how to catch favourites and we will not stop trying.’