Chelsea are about to face off against Tottenham in a huge Premier League match this afternoon.

The Blues have a good record at home to Spurs, but Antonio Conte has built a very strong squad of fighters and top players and will look to come for all three points in Chelsea’s backyard this afternoon.

Chelsea have some work to do, and the opening day performance against Everton wasn’t great despite getting the 1-0 win in the end. But even Thomas Tuchel knows they are not there yet and he has been doubting their title credentials in his latest interview as reported by The Daily Mirror.

Tuchel says that due to the sanctions, and then the new ownership takeover situation, Chelsea ‘are in a bit of a delay’ right now compared to the rest of the league and they are just concentrating on the now and trying to improve their squad as much as they can.

“I hesitate a little bit to answer this question [about challenging at the top again] because in general I don’t want to limit our ambitions artificially in beginning of August, Tuchel said. “And I don’t want to put pressure on us by putting out now any number that we want to reach. If you ask me if I feel confident enough that we win the next match, yes we can win the next match and we will prepare to beat Tottenham, which is a big ask at the moment, and which is a big match for us and a tough opponent.

“And then we go step by step and this is a luxury that we deserve at the moment, because the summer and not only the summer but the whole spring and whole summer was what it was for us. So we are in a bit of delay. This is nobody’s fault. It’s the reality. It is the luxury that we just focus on our situation now, improve our squad because we have some issues to get better on. In general, every team fights for top four in this league and, if in March and April you’re in the race, you’re in the race. And if you’re not in the race.”

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