Tuchel leaves Chelsea with an incredible record in club’s history
Thomas Tuchel was asked Wednesday morning by Chelsea, a day after the Blues sufferred a shock 1-0 defeat away at Dinamo Zagreb to kick off their 2022-23 Champions League campaign.
The German has however left Stamford Bridge with a record all his predecessors could not achieve.
He is the first the first manager in the club’s history to guide the Blues to the final of each of the League Cup, FA Cup and European Cup/UEFA Champions League.
Despite being in charge of Chelsea for just 589 days, no manager has ever reached more major domestic/European finals with the Blues than Tuchel.
The 49 year old took charge of exactly 100 games as Chelsea manager but had contrasting fortunes in each of the century of games he was in charge.
In his first 50 games, Chelsea kept 31 clean sheets, but his second 50 saw them keep just 18.
Tuchel also saw his Chelsea side lose three of their opening seven competitive matches in 2022-23 (W3 D1 L3) – the last manager at the club to lose as many as three of their opening seven competitive games in a season was José Mourinho in 2015-16 – he was dismissed 17 games and three months later.
The loss to Dinamo Zagreb means it is just the third time that Chelsea have started a Champions League campaign with a defeat, following that 2-1 home loss to Basel in September 2013 and a 1-0 defeat against Valencia at Stamford Bridge in 2019.
