Reece James - Xhaka

Picture Credit: Twitter

Chelsea’s bad run of form continues as they lost to local rivals Arsenal 4-0 in their pre-season friendly in Florida. Here frustrations flared up when Blue's wing-back Reece James got himself in a scuffle as he tried tackling Nuno Tavares who later fell down. But as he got up, Tavares and James starred at each other as the temperature on the field rose up. 

Moments later, Gunners midfielder Granit Xhaka got involved and aimed to guide James away with a hand to the stomach. James didn't like this action and forcefully pushed the Swiss international away before Gabriel Jesus acted as the peacemaker.

After the match, Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel was extremely disappointed with his team’s performance. He said, “The worrying part is that the level of commitment physically and mentally for this match was far higher for Arsenal than for us. They played I think what is their strongest line-up and structure that you see now for several weeks.”

“This was the line-up they will try to start for Premier League games. It was surely not our strongest line-up. This is a part of an explanation but only a little part and the other part is worrying,” Tuchel continued. 

The German manager also raised concerns about the future. “I cannot guarantee we will be ready in two weeks,” Tuchel added.

“I saw today a team from Arsenal that had an idea of how to play to a level of exhaustion and a level of physical commitment that we could not match, and also a level of mental commitment which we lack because we have a lot of players who think about leaving, are looking for other options, and we have players who left. I think this at the moment is obvious”, he further added.