Chelsea lost 1-0 to their Premier League rivals Man City on Saturday, and centre-back Antonio Rudiger was not happy about the performance from his side
Antonio Rudiger has said Man City were ‘physically better’ than Chelsea ‘for the first time’ after his side lost 1-0 to their Premier League rivals.
Brazil forward Gabriel Jesus angled a deflected finish in the 53rd minute to help City leapfrog Chelsea in the table on goal difference, ending the Blues’ unbeaten league start.
Chelsea could do little more than contain the visitors in a first half where the home players found possession greatly limited.
Thomas Tuchel sent the Blues out to stifle Guardiola’s side, deploying an extra man in midfield as the Blues sacrificed a creative edge for central stability, with Werner and Lukaku often isolated up front.
And Rudiger believes City ‘ran more’ than Chelsea – something he says doesn’t often happen when the clubs face each other.
He told the Chelsea club website: “Normally what we are strong in, today we didn’t show. We’ve played against them before and we played out from the back and it was not a problem like today.
“Today I think it was more on us, we have to play more ourselves. Obviously they played good, but we were not at our best.
“Today is the first time that the opponent was physically better than us. They ran more than us, they made it very difficult for us. But from ourselves, it was very disappointing.
“We have to admit we had a very bad day in the office. We didn’t perform on our usual level and that’s why we were punished and this is what we have to take for the next games, to give more intensity, because to be honest in every aspect they were better than us.
“Today we didn’t show our personality that we usually show. Obviously this can happen, but in a game like this it shouldn’t happen.”
Following the loss Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel admitted his side came up well short against City, in effectively all departments.
“We played with a little bit of the mentality that we had something to lose, but we had nothing to lose here today,” said Tuchel.
“We decided for 3-5-2. I don’t think it’s a matter of structure, it’s a matter of decisions and adapting to the opponents’ spaces where you can find the spaces.
“We tried in a 3-2 in attack, I thought to have a bit of connection in the build-up.
“We are in it together, we win together and we lose together.
“I will also ask the question to myself, was it the right shape? But I’m not sure if the shape is decisive for the result.
“Nobody can deny we weren’t like ourselves today. We lacked belief and confidence in the situation to escape where it was possible to escape.
“And with every mistake we lost more and more confidence.”
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