Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel has revealed why he decided to leave centre-back Trevoh Chalobah out of their 4-1 Premier League defeat to Brentford on Saturday afternoon.
The Blues hosted their west London rivals at Stamford Bridge having not lost a Premier League game since January, but it was their opponents that had the last laugh.
Fellow centre-back Andreas Christensen was also left on the bench, after he has reportedly finalised a move to Barcelona at the end of the season.
Speaking at his post-match press conference after the game, Tuchel revealed there was nothing behind his decision to leave Chalobah out of the squad to face Brentford on the weekend.
“Just selection,” he said, as quoted by football.london. “We decided to play with a back four and we chose our four central defenders.”
The German tactician may have wanted to rest a couple of defenders ahead of his side’s Champions League clash with Real Madrid on Wednesday evening.
When asked as to whether some of the players were thinking about their upcoming European clash, Tuchel seemed reluctant to agree with the query.
“Maybe if we lost 1-0 or 2-0, or starting too late. But this was not the case.
“We struggled in the beginning but I felt us more tired mentally. Not fresh enough. This is normal. Yesterday, we were wearing gloves and it was snowing in training.
“Today, it was very, very warm. Again, it’s more difficult for us than them to play as the underdog and be well prepared for this match. We are well prepared but are in one half of a training session.”