Good afternoon and welcome to live coverage of Thomas Tuchel's pre-match press conference ahead of Chelsea's home clash with West Ham United on Saturday.
The Blues will be desperate to return to winning ways tomorrow afternoon as the Hammers make the short trip to Stamford Bridge. Despite the defeat in midweek to Southampton, there is set to be real excitement in west London with two players possibly making their debuts.
Over the past two days have completed three new signings. Wesley Fofana was confirmed on Wednesday, while deadline day saw the double capture of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Denis Zakaria.
Aubameyang currently has a jaw injury and is set to miss Saturday's game, but there could be debuts for Fofana and Zakaria at Stamford Bridge. It's a new-look Chelsea and one Tuchel hopes will be able to show higher levels of consistency as the season progresses.
The Blues head coach is expected to be asked about his three newest signings and much more in his pre-match press conference. It's expected to take place at around 1:30pm (UK time), so stay tuned and keep the live blog locked below for everything Tuchel has to say.
Bobby Vincent
Full Tuchel transcript
Here's every word Thomas Tuchel said in that fascinating pre-match press conference...
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Bobby Vincent
That's it!
That's all from Tuchel. We will have the full transcript live soon.
Bobby Vincent
More Tuchel on Auba
I imagine everyone is happy he chose the club in blue now instead of the club in red. They will see very early about what he is. He's about using his speed to score. He's a very hard working striker, he's the first line of pressing, he's very strong in counter pressing. That's what made him special in Dortmund with me and the captain of Arsenal. He won some trophies there.
Bobby Vincent
Tuchel on Auba
Auba is always happy to fight for something and accept the challenge. The more challenges he has, the better it is. If he wants to overcome the number nine curse, or he wants to prove someone wrong in London – the more, the better. I know him as a person with an open heart. A very positive influence in any group. He is happy to be on the pitch and score goals; this is what we want.
Bobby Vincent
Tuchel on transfer window
It was quite turbulent but there was no choice not to do it because of the situation. We were late in the transfer market. Of course, everybody took their responsibility. The new owners stepped in and didn't sleep at all. It was of course like this and that's why I'm happy it's closed now and the focus turns to football. There's nobody to blame, there was no other option than doing it the way we did it. We got many good players in, and good personalities.
Bobby Vincent
Tuchel on what the players think
Yes [I've had a chat] with them, but not too much. I didn't want to engage with these important talks with players who aren't committed [and could still leave]. From now on, we will do everything to influence this group and sharpen our attitude to a level that is needed to be highly competitive at a high level.
Bobby Vincent
Tuchel on pressure facing him
Before we talk about the title, we should be ready to challenge West Ham for a win. There's too many points dropped already to talk about big things. We need a turnaround in this season. I think we are a club in transition, we are paying a price for the last half a year of insecurity. The teams that are dominating the league are the teams who knew since many months what they want, where they are, which role they would play in this league. It wasn't so clear for us so we had to come from behind. We have periods in every game where we play okay, we have periods in every game where we don't play okay. The pressure is on and the responsibility is on me.
Bobby Vincent
Tuchel on Fofana's actions to force Chelsea move
I don't know enough to judge all the facts. I don't have enough information about the situation. Sometimes players have promises. Of course the clubs where it happens don't like it. We wouldn't like it, 100% not but we are not judging from that. We don't have the whole picture. Wesley was very reliable, to me. He was always very respectful and respected the situation there.
Bobby Vincent
Tuchel on the 'curse' of number nine shirt
It's on us to prove it, for me to find a position, to create enough support for him and on him to finish our attacks. He is not afraid of the past and what a number means. He is ready to write his own history.
Bobby Vincent
Tuchel on West Ham
West Ham looks very strong. They are a very physical team with a good team spirit. They know what they are. They have periods where they can create huge moments within minutes and they have moments where they dig in and defend deep and can hurt you on counter-attacks.
Bobby Vincent
Tuchel on reaction from Chelsea players
We need to [toughen up]. We will use the end of the transfer period and the energy and stability when you know who's in the squad and who fights for what. We will use this stability we need to influence each other. We can see it today and yesterday, there was not the most intense training because of the matches in the week. We had a good training session and now I need to choose a team for tomorrow.
Bobby Vincent
Tuchel on James and Loftus-Cheek
Back in training and available. Only N'Golo is out.
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Tuchel on Zakaria
No [he will not be in the squad]. We need to work on the work permit. He will not be in the squad for tomorrow. We hope for Tuesday and then Fulham.
Bobby Vincent
Tuchel on Fofana
Very [excited]. He is the profile we identified very early as a replacement for Toni and Andreas. Todd was relentless on it and we never gave up. We managed to fulfill this transfer. Wesley is young, fast and very strong in set-pieces, defending and attacking.
Bobby Vincent
Tuchel on summer transfer window
The players we got are very good players and very good personalities. Everything was needed to inspire the group. We made excellent signings. It does not help when we talk about the price too much. This is how the market was for us, maybe we weren't in the perfect position to find the right price.
Bobby Vincent
More Tuchel on Auba discipline issues
Nothing big. There was never a big issue. He has a problem with his time, but he never misses a meeting or something like this. But to arrive 60 minutes before is sometimes a struggle. Never a major concern.
Bobby Vincent
Tuchel on Auba
At the moment he cannot train. We need to provide him a mask to protect his jaw and then we can start to try with a mask from next week.
Bobby Vincent
Aubameyang interview
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been reflecting on his deadline day switch to Chelsea from Barcelona.
The 33-year-old attacker has described it as an "honour" to be representing the Blues – only a few months after leaving London rivals Arsenal.
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More on Chelsea from Moyes
If you look at the changes Chelsea have had to make over the last year or two. There's big changes there and sometimes changes take a little bit of time.
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Moyes on Chelsea
Chelsea are always a big opponent for whoever plays them. They have some really fantastic players. They're trying to put together a good team, and maybe a new club in fact.
Bobby Vincent
More transfer news
The transfer window in England may be over but the Turkish one doesn't shut until this evening.
Fenerbahce have taken advantage of this and have agreed a deal to sign Michy Batshuayi from Chelsea, after the Belgian's move to Nottingham Forest collapsed on deadline day.
READ MORE HERE
Bobby Vincent
Welcome!
Hello and welcome to football.london's live coverage of Thomas Tuchel's pre-West Ham United press conference.
What a day it was yesterday on transfer deadline day! We've just about recovered and now attention switches to actual football.
We'll have the pre-match thoughts of Tuchel very soon, so stay tuned.