Thomas Tuchel says "I didn't see it coming" as West Brom thrash Chelsea

Premier League: Thomas Tuchel says "I didn't see it coming" as West Brom thrash Chelsea 5-2

Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel said his team was sloppy and hopes the 5-2 embarrassing loss to West From will be a wake-up call.

Two goals from the impressive Matheus Pereira and Callum Robinso and a goal from Mbaye Diagne guided West Brom to a stunning win at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea defender Thiago Silva was sent off after receiving a second yellow card on 29 minutes.

It was Tuchel's first loss since he took charge of Chelsea 15 games ago.

Our unbeaten start under Thomas Tuchel comes to an end at the Bridge. #CHEWBA pic.twitter.com/esK8wgKqzT

— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) April 3, 2021

The German coach says his team need a quick response for their first leg at Porto in the Champions League on Tuesday as London rivals West Ham and Tottenham could kick the blues out of the top four on the Premier League table.

"After the red card we were not able to cope with the situation," he told BT Sport immediately after the game. "I don't know why but it was like this. We gave away very easy goals just before half-time. But in the second half, what could go wrong went wrong and we have to accept a big loss today.

"Hopefully it's a big-wake up call for all of us, me included. We will get the right response because this is sport and this is absolutely necessary. First of all, it's important we digest it, because it's a lot to digest. I did not see it coming. Now we have to take our responsibilities - me included - and shake it off and continue tomorrow."

In his post-match press conference, Tuchel blamed his side's "rusty" start to the match on the early kick-off coming after a long international break but agreed that the level of quality from his team is not good enough.

"We were rusty, we were sloppy in the build-up in our own half, we did many, many unforced errors, we did not adapt well to our positions under pressure, and we gave away easy ball losses that lead in the end to a red card that cost us the game today.

"There are two games today. There's a game, 11 against 11, which was not our best game, which I was not super happy about, but I did not expect too much after the international break and then they have an early kick-off on Saturday. So that was ok for me.

"But we were still sloppy and on the counter-attacks, we had big, big chances and we were not precise enough and missed a lot of opportunities to finish this game early.

"Then the second story of the game is we were not able to adapt to one man down. There is no need to concede five goals if you're one man down with our quality but our defending was clearly not on the level it's used to being.

"And I'm in that for the tactical choices, of course they're my responsibility. It's hard to accept but there's no other solution but to accept it and move on forward."

Tuchel was also determined not to get carried away with his first loss as Chelsea manager.

"We can not, after 14 or 15 matches, lose our head now, we can not take away the trust that we have in these players," he said, as he explained what he had told his players after the match.

"It was the moment after the game to be honest but to be calm and breathe and to tell everybody to breathe. It will be a hard afternoon for everybody, a hard evening.

"It's our first loss together and it's important to find a way to deal with it together and let everybody know I feel a part of it."