It’s tough to digest – Tuchel stunned by Chelsea’s Baggies battering

A shellshocked Thomas Tuchel said Chelsea’s Premier League 5-2 thrashing at the hands of relegation-threatened West Brom was “tough to digest”.

Tuchel had overseen 14 games without defeat since replacing Frank Lampard in January, but his unbeaten run as Blues head coach came to a stunning end at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

The fit-again Thiago Silva was sent off only 29 minutes into his first game for two months and second-bottom Albion capitalised in ruthless fashion after Christian Pulisic opened the scoring.

Matheus Pereira struck twice in first-half stoppage time and substitute Callum Robinson grabbed a second-half double, with Mbaye Diagne also on target for the Baggies.

Mason Mount had made it 4-2, but sorry Chelsea were unable to contend with Sam Allardyce’s clinical side as they suffered a sensational setback in their bid to secure a top-four finish.

Chelsea had gone seven games without conceding a goal before facing Sam Allardyce’s side and Tuchel was at a loss to explain the manner in which West Brom coasted to a first league win at Stamford Bridge since 1978.

The German told BBC Sport: “It is two games, 11 v 11 and then 11 v 10. There is no need to concede five goals when you have our quality, that’s for sure but we are all in on that. Myself included.

“We could not adapt to the situation, which is a surprise as we were leading. We are normally confident enough to defend but we were sloppy and kept making big mistakes. We were punished hard and it’s tough to digest.

“I didn’t see the red card, I saw the two big mistakes in our own half before the yellow cards. That is not typical for us, we were rusty. We made easy mistakes and were punished. It was totally our fault.

“I did not see that second half coming. We tried to give a bit of security with a back three but we were never in a flow. We had some chances but we didn’t defend well.”

Victory for Albion ensured Allardyce became the first manager in Premier League history to win at Chelsea with three different clubs in the competition, also winning there with Bolton Wanderers and Crystal Palace.

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