Thomas Tuchel has admitted struggling to fathom the rescheduling of Chelsea’s Premier League trip to Brighton.
The Blues travel to the Amex Stadium on Tuesday, with the clash shifted from February 8 – when Chelsea will be at the Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi.
But now boss Tuchel has been left wondering why the rearranged Brighton match could not have been staged a day later on Wednesday, January 19.
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Chelsea lost 1-0 at Manchester City on Sunday, with Brighton drawing 1-1 with Crystal Palace on Friday night.
The Blues host Tottenham on Sunday and Brighton travel to Leicester, leaving Tuchel nonplussed as to the choice of Tuesday over Wednesday.
“It is very hard to understand; it’s nothing to do with City, but there are three away games in a row. Both Brighton and we have our next game on Sunday, so there was no need to have it on a Tuesday.
“Actually, Brighton played on Friday so it makes a huge difference (in their favour) also. We have the schedule that we have.
“We played in some competitions and we hope those competitions stay with us and there are some extra games to come. We have this Brighton game now because we are in Abu Dhabi for the Club World Cup, so it is squeezed in this week.
“We had last week – not a whole week – to prepare for Man City because of the Carabao Cup semi-final.
“On the one hand it is not to complain, but we have some fixtures because of winning the cup games and winning quarter-finals and being in the semi-final both legs.
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“Both coaches, by the way, for the (Carabao Cup) semi-final wanted to just play one leg but it was not possible.
“We can play Saturday and Tuesday, we have done it before, but if you widen the focus then we could have done better for sure.”
Tuchel has also called for greater “clarity and consistency” when it comes to Premier League postponements, after Arsenal had their request to rearrange Sunday’s clash with Tottenham accepted.
Asked if some clubs are trying to bend the rules around postponements, Tuchel replied: “Oh, I would not say so, I know what you mean and I feel strongly that we need clarity and consistency in decision-making.
“And maybe we lack this a little bit otherwise you would not ask these questions of a coach who was not involved.
“So I’m voting for clarity and consistency, so that we all know what’s going on.”
