Thomas Tuchel bizarrely blamed a cancelled flight for Chelsea’s humiliating 3-0 defeat at Elland Road, refusing to give Leeds any credit for the way they dismantled his side.
The Blues fell behind after 33 minutes when goalkeeper Edouard Mendy gifted the ball to Brenden Aaronson to score.
Rodrigo doubled Leeds’ advantage four minutes later when he headed in a free-kick from Jack Harrison, who netted himself in the second half before Kalidou Koulibaly was sent off with six minutes to go.
However, tetchy Tuchel claimed Chelsea were the better team before Mendy’s mistake and used the coaching staff’s disrupted travel plans on Saturday as an excuse.
‘Everything that can go wrong, did go wrong,’ said the Chelsea boss. ‘It started yesterday. We had no plane arrive so we came on the bus. The players could fly but for the coaching staff it was a long ride on the bus.
‘It continued today. We lost the game in the first 20 minutes, where we were clearly better and had huge chances. We missed the target and did not take what we deserved. We created enough chances to be 2-0 up.
‘We were clearly the better team and then we gave two presents. We lost our discipline. We scored an own goal (Mendy’s mistake) and gave away a cheap set-piece and conceded from a set-piece. They are mistakes.
‘It is nothing to do with pressing, nothing to do with running less kilometres and nothing to do with the style of Leeds. I don’t see the connection that we lost to the style of Leeds.
‘For you, this is the story, for me it is not. It is more our fault than anybody else’s credit.’
Responding to Tuchel’s claim that Leeds’ style of play did not contribute to the result, home manager Jesse Marsch said: ‘He can have his opinion but our way of playing dictated the match almost entirely. It made them make mistakes.’
Mendy’s howler came when he controlled Thiago Silva’s backpass and tried to take the ball around the pressing Aaronson, who tackled him a yard from goal.
‘I don’t know if it is necessary to speak a lot, he knows it is a mistake,’ said Tuchel.
‘Everybody in the world sees that mistake and it is a huge mistake in a crucial time of the match. It does not help. He is the one who is most disappointed. It cost us a lot today.’
Tuchel also criticised centre back Koulibaly, who was shown a second yellow card for pulling back Joe Gelhardt.
‘It is a bit of a reflection of the frustration but it cannot happen,’ he added.