Tuchel rails against Chelsea's defensive mix-ups

LONDON : Chelsea coach Thomas Tuchel said his team had to halt a string of defensive errors that have seen the European champions concede 11 goals in their last three home games, including Wednesday's 4-2 defeat by Arsenal.

"This amount of mistakes of this calibre, it is simply impossible and I don't see it in any other matches but I see it now in consecutive matches of our games and it has to stop," Tuchel told reporters.

The German said he thought Chelsea had overcome the defensive frailties that contributed to their 4-1 defeat at Stamford Bridge to Brentford and their 3-1 home loss to Real Madrid in the Champions League earlier this month after solid performances more recently.

"They get the full praise when they do it like they did it the last three matches and they have to face reality that this is impossible to win matches like this," Tuchel said.

Arsenal went ahead when Eddie Nketiah seized on a weak back pass by Andreas Christensen in the 13th minute and the striker bagged a second goal to put the Gunners 3-2 up in the 57th minute when he seized on another mix-up in Chelsea's defence.

Tuchel also lamented the penalty conceded in injury time when Cesar Azpilicueta fouled Bukayo Saka who scored from the spot to seal the 4-2 win.

"We have three ball losses in 10 seconds and then we do a foul where it's ... not even the slightest danger... and we rob ourselves the chance to have six minutes maybe for the equaliser," he said.