Thomas Tuchel described Chelsea’s performance as “sloppy and rusty” as the Blues slumped to a 5-2 Premier League defeat at Stamford Bridge to West Bromwich Albion.
Saturday’s defeat represented Tuchel’s first defeat as Chelsea manager and the German well less than pleased with his side’s display.
Christian Pulisic gave Chelsea the lead midway into the first half, reacting quickest after Marcos Alonso’s freekick was pushed onto the post by the West Brom keeper, Sam Johnstone.
The game was however turned on its head when Chelsea experienced centre half Thiago Silva received his marching orders for a second bookable offence.
Chelsea’s numerical advantage was ruthlessly exploited by the visitors who rapidly turned things around via a Matheus Pereira brace just before the break.
West Brom remarkably extended their advantage on 63 minutes via a magnificent Callum Robinson volley before Mbaye Diagne finished off an enthralling team move to make it 4-1 in the 68 minute.
Mason Mount scored for the hosts soon after, off a Timo Werner assist to make things interesting before Robinson completed his brace at the end to complete a truly astonishing scoreline.
“We were sloppy,” Tuchel said afterwards. “We were rusty. We produced a lot of mistakes in our own half.
“That was the result of two Yellow cards and a Red card (for Silva) and we paid a heavy price for that. I don’t know why but we were not able to adapt to the situation.”