He also said his belief that more new players are needed if there is to be a strong showing in the season ahead has been reinforced.

Our head coach had watched his side slip to a 4-0 defeat in Florida, immediately before the squad flew back to England at the end of the US tour. There is one more pre-season match to come, in Italy against Udinese on Friday. Tuchel began by addressing the importance of this result at this stage of preparations.

‘I am far from relaxed,’ he said. ‘We deserved to lose which is fair enough because we were simply not good enough. We were simply not competitive.

‘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.

‘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.’

The boss also highlighted the lack of dangerous situations created in attack even during the second half when Chelsea were the better team for a lengthy spell. He addressed the question of recruiting players.

‘My analysing of the season does not change because of this game. Unfortunately, it proved my point. The last week proves my point. I would absolutely prefer not to be right. I did everything to prove myself wrong but at the moment I feel that I was right.

‘I look at the last season and parts of the game where we struggled, parts of the season where we struggled, and then we got sanctioned and players left us and some players are trying to leave us, and this is where it is.

‘So we had an urgent appeal for quality players, a huge amount of quality players. We got two quality players but we are not competitive like this. Unfortunately you could see it today.’
Kalidou Koulibaly came on for the final 20 minutes, the defender’s first appearance in a Chelsea shirt. It was the main positive from the game declared Tuchel.

‘He was the best player. He was incredibly good I have to say.’