Inside Thomas Tuchel's first year at Chelsea from Champions League glory to museum love

Thomas Tuchel arrived as the manager nervous about taking over from a Chelsea legend.

And on the first anniversary of taking charge at Stamford Bridge, Tuchel has made himself at home in London and as Chelsea boss.

Tuchel has reached four cup finals in his first 12 months since succeeding Frank Lampard, delivered the Champions League trophy, European Super Cup and is on course for another memorable season with the Carabao Cup and Club World Cup finals to come.

It has been a remarkable year for Tuchel who arrived in England in the middle of a pandemic with a reputation for fall-outs and rows after acrimonious exits from Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint Germain.

But fast forward a year and Tuchel has brought his own unique style as he has bought into the Chelsea culture, won over the players with family barbecues, enjoys the sights in London with trips to the Natural History Museum and the London Eye.

He is a warm, engaging character with a mischievous smile and, even though the facade dropped a little during Chelsea’s poor recent run of results in the Premier League, he has been a complete contradiction to the moody, difficult and combative perception from when he arrived.

It obviously helps when you deliver the European Cup within four months of taking charge and he duly toasted success with an all night party at the team hotel in Porto after Chelsea beat Manchester City.

Tuchel spent the night celebrating with gin and tonics, but switched to Coca Cola at 4.30am when director Marina Granovskaia told him Roman Abramovich wanted a meeting at 7.30am.

He did go to bed at 6am for just over an hour’s sleep and Chelsea’s owner gave him the perfect hangover cure: a two year contract extension taking him up to 2024.

Cama