Thomas Tuchel has refused to start making predictions about where his Chelsea side can challenge this season, preferring instead to focus on each game as it comes, starting with this afternoon’s hosting of Tottenham.
It’s a big London derby to kick off our home campaign at Stamford Bridge and the Blues are aiming to continue a flawless record against our rivals with Tuchel in the dugout, which reads five wins from five and zero goals conceded.
While the Chelsea head coach has conceded that today’s opposition may be ahead of us in terms of their summer recruitment and preparedness for the new season, he remains confident that the team he selects will have the quality and desire to achieve a positive result. In terms of the 2022/23 term as a whole, there is also optimism that we can catch up quickly.
‘In general I don’t want to limit our ambitions artificially in the beginning of August and I don’t want to put pressure on us by putting out there any position we want to reach,’ he said.
‘If you ask me if I feel confident enough that we win the next match, I think yeah we can and we will prepare to beat Tottenham, which is a big ask at the moment and a big match for us against a tough opponent.
‘Then we will go step by step and this is a luxury we deserve at the moment because the spring and the summer was what it was for us. We are in a bit of delay, it’s nobody’s fault but simply a reality. It is the luxury that we just focus on our situation now.
‘We improve our squad because we have some issues to get better on so this is what we do and then we will see. Every team fights for top four in this league and if you’re in the race in March or April, then you’re in the race.’
Tuchel has been delighted with the squad additions, three of whom debuted last weekend away at Everton, and believes chairman Todd Boehly has been pushing hard to support him with recruitment throughout the window.
The transfer deadline is still a few weeks away and Tuchel is also hopeful of more reinforcements before then.
‘I gave him [Boehly] a list to make it possible for us to fight straight away for the title but it was a pretty unrealistic list!’ Tuchel joked. ‘We don’t play fantasy football - we need to pay for it and convince players and other clubs to give us their best players, which is simply not happening.
‘I’m super happy with what we did so far – Raheem Sterling, Kalidou, Carney and Marc Cucurella, all fantastic signings and I’m more than happy that they’re with us.
‘If we are finished then we fight with this squad but if not, we try to add further quality and of course with that, the ambition level rises.’