Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel concedes Edouard Mendy to blame for West Ham defeat

Thomas Tuchel conceded that goalkeeper Edouard Mendy was to blame for Chelsea’s manic 3-2 defeat at West Ham as the Blues dropped vital points in the Premier League title race. The European champions could finish the day in third if Liverpool and Manchester City record victories against Wolves and Watford respectively and the German was under no illusions that Chelsea only had themselves to blame for the rare slip-up.

His side had only conceded six Premier League goals this season in 14 matches before the trip to the London Stadium and Chelsea were left to rue a series of individual mistakes.

The Hammers were offered a route back into the game after Thiago Silva’s opener when Jorginho rolled the ball back to Mendy, who miscontrolled before taking down Jarrod Bowen.

Manuel Lanzini stepped up from the spot and converted with confidence but Chelsea responded rapidly as Mason Mount scored a brilliantly controlled volley.

But West Ham were not prepared to lie down as Bowen thundered home a low drive to equalise before a freak winner from Arthur Masauku.

“If you want to have results at this kind of level, you have to minimise the mistakes.

“We talked about it before the game, which obviously did not help and that’s the story.”

Tuchel also acknowledged that Jorginho may be set Mendy up to fail with his risky back pass.

He added: “Everybody is involved, the pass is not the best decision to pass this ball back.

“The orientation is not the back but we can still save it but the decision making from Edu [Edouard] is also not the best in this moment.

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“The second goal is one that you can concede but the third one again, is a strange one.

“In general, the two big chances they had in the first half were from our individual mistakes.”

Chelsea have now taken just four points from their last three Premier League matches as we head into a packed festive schedule.

But the Blues boss is determined to ensure his men get themselves back on track as soon as possible.

“Every loss is a bump in the road that will not hold us back from what we demand but we need to play more accurate, more stable and we need to reduce the big mistakes,” he concluded.