Chelsea's Tuchel not ready to concede title race

Thomas Tuchel

has refused to concede the

title race, notwithstanding

sitting 13 points behind

following their 1-0 loss at the Etihad Stadium.

Before the Blues’ battle against Brighton, Tuchel hit out at the scheduling of his side’s trip to the Amex Stadium.

Chelsea have not won their last three Premier League games, which is their longest run under the reign of the German tactician, but the manager claimed that his side can still fight for the title, while also praising Manchester City.

"

Maybe we have to stop focusing on our own problems, and simply admit that City are in a very strong place",

Tuchel said.

"In the last 12 matches they have a 100 per cent record. They earned what they have. Maybe it's necessary to admit this.

"The second thing to say is that we will never give up. Never, never, never, until the race is over.

"I told you many weeks ago that we were in a good place because we were in the middle of the race. Maybe we're not there anymore, but we're still in the race.

"We cannot lower our ambitions because it [the gap to City] is now 13 points, we cannot. We are committed to our goals."

Chelsea could only manage one shot on target in their loss at the Etihad, but the Blues coach remained content with his side’s display against the Premier League champions.

"

Last match, like all the five matches we've played now against Manchester City [since Tuchel took charge last year], was 50-50,"

he said.

 "We won the first three, but all of them could have gone the other way.

"I'm happy with where the team is, there's no need to doubt the process. We will bounce back and never give in."

Tuchel was quizzed about the battle against Brighton, which was brought forward because of the Champions League holders' appearance at next month's FIFA Club World Cup, and he criticized having to play another game in a hectic period.

"

It's very hard to understand,"

he said.

"Now we have three away games in a row. Both Brighton and we have our next games on Sunday, so there was no need to put it on a Tuesday.

"Now it's been squeezed in this week. Last week we didn't have a whole week to prepare for Manchester City because we had the Carabao Cup semi-final.

"On one hand I don't want to complain or to make excuses, absolutely not, but for example, all coaches in the semi-finals [of the EFL Cup] wanted to play just one leg, and it was not possible.

"We could have done better in scheduling this match, for sure."

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