Chelsea FC's title hopes suffered a major setback on Thursday after failing to beat Everton on Thursday night.
Chelsea 1-1 Everton.
Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel was disappointed with how his side gave away another lead on Thursday night, labelling it as “frustrating”.
The West London club missed a chance to move two points behind Premier League table-toppers Manchester City as they played a 1-1 draw with Everton at Stamford Bridge.
England international Mason Mount gave the Blues the lead in the 70th minute as he finished off a pass from right wing-back Reece James' pass.
But, Everton were not behind for too long as they equalised four minutes later when 19-year-old defender Jarrad Branthwaiten tapped in Anthony Gordon's free-kick.
Brazil centre-back Thiago Silva came close to scoring the winner but saw his towering header saved by the Toffee’s shot-stopper Pickford.
The England keeper Pickford put in a brilliant performance tonight as he prevented Christian Pulisic, James, Jorginho, and several strikes from Mount from hitting the net.
Following the draw, Chelsea manager Tuchel said it was hard to accept the result, knowing they are now for points behind Man City, who trashed Leeds United 7-0 on Wednesday.
'It is hard to swallow'
The German told BT Sport: "Yes, of course (it is frustrating) to give away another lead. If we see the effort we bring in a match like this, the effort we need to score one goal and the effort the opponent needs to score an equaliser - it is hard to swallow.
"We missed big chances to get the result in the first half and second half we did not find the rhythm consistently and tried to bring on some energy from the bench, but it was hard. We had the lead and give it away with one free-kick. "Football is almost never like one reason why things go this way, but one big reason is for sure the chances we missed today. We could have been two or three up and were playing with fire. It is obvious we missed a lot of players, big personalities, regular starters, but we will not use it as an excuse." When asked whether the Premier League should have a break because of Covid, Tuchel replied: "I don't know, I don't want to get involved in the political stuff. If they decide we have to play we play."
'We have to concede less goals'
Chelsea defender Cesar Azpilicueta bemoaned the result and insisted that they need to concede fewer goals.
"We are disappointed, frustrated, because it is not the first time we have dropped points," the Spaniard said.
"We created chances and nearly the first time they approached our box we conceded. How important it is to keep clean sheets as a team, defend together, and of course when we concede a lot of goals the confidence drops and it is not as easy.
"We are not a defensive team, but of course we have to concede less goals if we want to get where we want to get.
"When you want to compete for a Premier League against these two teams who have shown how consistent they are, you cannot drop points. It makes it more difficult but there is still a long way."
Comments