Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel says that the major area separating his team and Liverpool is the Reds’ ability to play well on a consistent basis.

The Reds have scored 83 goals in the Premier League this season, in contrast to Chelsea‘s 66, and Tuchel believes that Jurgen Klopp’s side are simply much better at racking up the numbers where it counts:

“When we play against Liverpool in all the games since I’ve been here the gap is very, very close and we give them a hard time. It is the consistency in the performance. If you look at the individual performances and the goalscorers and the assists at the top of the league you find a lot of the Liverpool players who are at the top of everything. We struggle to have these kind of numbers.”

Liverpool’s consistency in recent years can only be matched by Manchester City, and it must be said that the two teams have reached unprecedented levels in terms of their ability to grind out results over extended periods of time.

Tuchel should’t really be that disappointed that his players have not been able to match the standards set by the top two. The type of winning runs Liverpool and City have been on are right up with the best in Premier League history so falling below that level is unsurprising. We shall see if Chelsea are able to improve further under Tuchel.