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Chelsea boss Tuchel: West Brom thrashing a wake-up call for our defending

Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel admits they lacked the right "attitude" with their defending in defeat to West Brom on Saturday.

Thiago Silva saw red as Chelsea were thrashed 5-2 at home.

Tuchel later stated, "If we look at this game in four weeks, hopefully we call it a wake-up call because that will mean that we really woke up and started a new series [of games without defeat].

"I didn't feel us over-confident, I didn't feel us arrogant or without the effort. West Bromwich started to defend very deep, we had high ball possession and we were better and better in the game and we created good moments, good ball recoveries high up the pitch, but still when it was 11 v 11 we had crucial ball loses in our own half, which produced two set-pieces around the box.

"So I was a bit more concerned about our positioning, everything seemed a bit rusty and more rusty than yesterday and the day before in training. That is why I was surprised.

"But I could accept it because after two weeks and a lot of travelling and the first game on a Saturday at 12.30, I did not have the highest expectations. I thought if it takes us a while to come into this match I will accept it and I will push and then we had the goal, but to give a yellow card and a red card away like this straight after a goal, it was like we did not feel the risk. I will have to talk to the players about this but the attitude in defending was clearly not like before."

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Paul Vegas

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