Thomas Tuchel given painful Man City and Liverpool reminder as season-long issue haunts Chelsea

It was a question that caught Thomas Tuchel off guard when he faced the media ahead of Chelsea's FA Cup semi-final against Crystal Palace last week. Yet it was simple enough. Why is his side's away form this season so much better than that at Stamford Bridge?

"Is it like this? I don't know. Normally, the home game gives you an advantage," Tuchel pondered. "After the big success in the Champions League last season, maybe teams play at Stamford Bridge not to lose first of all, with a slightly more defensive approach, and we struggle a bit not to break them down.

"When we are away, our opponents also get pushed to win [by their supporters], and it opens up the game maybe a little bit for us. I don't know, it can be anything. Maybe it is because we feel the pressure. It can be bad luck, good luck, it can be not even worth analysing it.

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"So maybe it is a mix of everything. I did not dig in so far in this. We will look at it on a longer range of games and more amount of games because maybe then you can see a pattern."

Well, let's do just that – it may save the Chelsea head coach a job at least. In the Premier League this season, the Blues have played 15 matches at Stamford Bridge. Those have resulted in seven wins, five draws and three defeats. Only 1.73 points per game have been averaged, a figure behind the likes of Leicester City (1.80), West Ham United (1.82) and Manchester United (1.82), all of whom sit below Tuchel's side in the table.

It is a different story away from west London. Chelsea have played 16 Premier League games on their travels during the 2021/22 campaign thus far and have come away victorious from eleven of