It comes as no surprise that Chelsea sacked manager Thomas Tuchel just hours after the club lost 1-0 to Dinamo Zagreb on matchday No. 1 of the Champions League group stage.
Tuchel’s Chelsea had started the new season in inconsistent form with a 3W-1D-3L in all competitions. But in those three wins against Everton, Leicester City, and West Ham, the Blues looked shaky.
Chelsea Football Club part company with Thomas Tuchel.— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) September 7, 2022
Chelsea Football Club part company with Thomas Tuchel.
The German still led Chelsea to 10 points from 18 points on offer to start the Premier League season.
A decent tally that has them sixth in the league. Chelsea have even achieved more actual points than their xPTs figure of 7.51, showing a slight overachievement.
Yet, with new owners in place at Stamford Bridge, the decision was made to cut ties with Tuchel just over a season after he led Chelsea to Champions League glory.
The decision by Chelsea ownership, led by chairman Todd Boehly, to sack Tuchel won’t just be based on this season. The reaction to sacking Tuchel may look knee-jerk, but Boehly will have looked at the Blues’ failures a season ago.
Chelsea lost two domestic cup finals, both to Liverpool, on penalties. But those cup defeats are not the only problems Tuchel had in 2021-22.
The Blues were first in the Premier League on December 1. A 3-2 loss on matchday No. 15 to West Ham saw the Blues fall to third place, a position they remained in for most of the rest of the season. Chelsea finished the campaign well off the title.
Chelsea’s Champions League quarterfinal failure against Real Madrid will also have made an impact on Boehly and company.
Chelsea lost the first leg at home 3-1 but turned around the tie in Madrid taking a 4-3 lead on aggregate after 75 minutes.
Tuchel’s team then conceded an 80th-minute equaliser to Madrid and lost the tie in extra time courtesy of a Karim Benzema goal. It was a defeat that shouldn’t have happened.
Along with losing cup matches and failing to win the Premier League, Tuchel couldn’t to get the best out of Romelu Lukaku.
The striker’s return to England from Inter Milan inspired many Premier League experts to pick the Blues as Premier League winners for 2021-22.
Tuchel couldn’t get the best out of Lukaku and just 12 months after arriving, the striker was sent back to Inter on loan. In his place, Chelsea signed 33-year-old Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, a player that struggled to find goals in his final days at Arsenal, but was familiar with the now-departed coach.
Tuchel’s legacy at Chelsea will be of a coach that promised so much, but in the end, delivered little. Yes, Chelsea won the 2021 Champions League Final against Man City, 1-0. He also delivered the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA World Club Cups.
However, two FA Cup runners-up and one Carabao Cup runners-up medals will be long remembered amongst fans.
In the end, Tuchel leaves Chelsea with an overall record of 62W-19D-19L in just 99 matches with the Blues falling well short of winning the Premier League.
Suprisingly or not, Chelsea are really close to sign Graham Potter as a new manager. It will be interesting to see if the current Brighton’s coach would handle the pressure in the Blues camp.