Tuchel admits Chelsea's win at Southampton won't impact Real clash

As Thomas Tuchel was setting off to leave the south coast on Saturday, it was put to Chelsea’s manager that he wouldn’t need to gorge on chocolate that evening.

‘Good for my diet,’ he responded and off he went with a smile, a little healthier and a lot happier than 24 hours earlier, when he had spoken about snacking his way through miserable re-runs of Wednesday’s defeat against Real Madrid.

The world looks a little brighter in those parts today, because there will always be something restorative about 6-0 wins.

What Chelsea did to Southampton was quite brilliant, and much-needed too if an improved mood is the first step to saving their Champions League campaign on Tuesday. But Tuchel is a realist. 

Trouncing a Southampton team with little to play for is somewhat different from reversing a 3-1 deficit at the Bernabeu, as he well knows. So from that point of view, and that of a Premier League table in which Chelsea are unlikely to climb or fall from third, how much can one thumping win change after two painful defeats?

For that reason, his position on the prospects of defending their European crown hasn’t shifted from his downbeat assessments from midweek.

‘The result and performance (at Southampton) is good because I am sure that lifts everyone’s spirits,’ Tuchel said. ‘But the task is huge. Let’s be honest. Everything is possible in football, but let’s be realistic — it is still the Bernabeu and an opponent very different from today. But it is the best way to prepare.’

Hard to argue with any of that, particularly the latter around preparation. There has been a sense that the wider issues surrounding Chelsea and their ownership would eventually leech into their playing results, and that seemed to come with those poor