'We are not tough enough': Tuchel admits 'soft' Chelsea are 'too easy to bully'

Thomas Tuchel has blasted his Chelsea side's weak mentality after they were thumped 2-1 by Southampton on Tuesday.

The Blues went ahead through Raheem Sterling's early strike but capitulated once again and goals from Romeo Lavia and Adam Armstrong handed Tuchel's side a defeat which could have easily been more emphatic had it not been for goal-line clearances from Marc Cucurella and Thiago Silva.

It was Chelsea's second defeat of the season so far, following the 3-0 defeat to Leeds which came before the most unconvincing of victories against Leicester City, and Tuchel admitted his players are getting bullied far too easily.

"We are not tough enough to win these matches away," he said. "It was the same story in Leeds, there we thought the problem was we didn't score in the first 25 minutes and then they pushed us off-balance in two minutes with two goals and we could not find any answers.

"Today, we scored so everything was okay but one set piece again, one sloppy defending again, we were off-balance and we did not react to it. We were lucky not to concede a third goal at the beginning of the second half. We were not tough enough as a team to react or push it over the line for us.

"Soft defending. What stops that is pure mentality, stop it with defending mentality. There is no superiority for the opponent, there is no need to give shots away, just toughen up as a team and show a different mentality

"I don't like to talk about it normally because you cannot prove it with data or tactical position but it is like this. Both goals are cheap, soft goals and should not happen if you expect to win a match in the evening at an away stadium."