Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel has refused suggestions that a lack of effort has hampered the Blues at Stamford Bridge, although he admits he is struggling to explain their poor home form.
Having fallen to a 4-2 home defeat against Arsenal on Wednesday, Tuchel's men have lost three consecutive games at Stamford Bridge after a 4-1 Premier League loss to Brentford and a 3-1 Champions League quarter-final reverse to Real Madrid earlier this month.
Chelsea host West Ham on Sunday, looking to solidify their grasp on third place in the Premier League after losing just one of their last 15 home league games against the Irons (10 wins, four draws).
Although unsure as to what was causing the Blues' Stamford Bridge woes, Tuchel refused suggestions that a lack of effort was to blame.
The 48-year-old also insisted it was normal for elite players to feel less "tension" during regular league games than in European knockout games, having watched the Blues make multiple defensive errors in their defeat to the Gunners.
"It comes back to me because I should push them and make them alert," Tuchel said. "It's human to be tired, human to be more alert in a knockout game than a normal match. Sometimes it's also good, the foundation to be able to play 60 games.
"I remember at Mainz [Tuchel's first senior management role] with one game a week, every game was like a cup final. On a Saturday, we gave 150 per cent physically but also mentally, the players were drained until Tuesday.
"Once I stepped into being coach at Borussia Dortmund, I saw that players gave everything physically on a normal match but mentally it was not the same stress level as for players at Mainz. They were capable of playing more games.
"It's a thin line in judging – that's why lazy is the wrong word. But it's okay to feel less tension in a normal match in the Premier League and a home match than if you go to the Bernabeu.
"It's normal because it is maybe less tension, less excitement, less pressure. But it cannot lead to being less alert. This can never happen.
"I don't know what it is [causing Chelsea's poor home form]. If it was just the one thing, we would switch dressing rooms or take another hotel or something like this.
"But that would maybe be more superstition than anything else. I have no solution, but it's also not the level that we want to produce in home games."
Chelsea have secured 26 points from a possible 45 in their 15 home Premier League games this season (seven wins, five draws, three defeats). Away from Stamford Bridge, Tuchel's team have taken 36 points from 16 games (11 wins, three draws, two losses).
The Blues' attempts to rectify their poor home displays could be buoyed, however, by the poor travelling record of Sunday's visitors, with West Ham failing to win a Premier League game on their travels since beating Crystal Palace on January 1, recording one draw and four defeats on the road since then.
A lot of changes in store after Leicester relegation – Jonny Evans
Leicester defender Jonny Evans does not know what the future holds following their relegation to the Championship.
The Foxes became just the second former Premier League champions to be relegated when their 2-1 win against West Ham was deemed meaningless by Everton’s victory against Bournemouth.
A large number of players, including Evans and Youri Tielemans, are out of contract while the likes of James Maddison and Harvey Barnes look set to be sold to help balance the books.
Evans revealed the squad had said their goodbyes in the dressing room ahead of a likely summer exodus.
Evans, 35, said: “It is a tough thing to take.
“There was silence for a long time in the dressing room afterwards. We know there are a lot of players out of contract.
“There are going to be a lot of changes in the football club.
“It was an opportunity for everybody to say goodbye really. A lot of us don’t know where we are going to end up.
“I said to the boys it has been an amazing five years but the club now have decisions to make.
“I don’t think they probably know what they are going to do.”
Defeat for West Ham concluded a disappointing Premier League campaign in which they finished in 14th, just six points above Leicester.
But their attention is firmly on next week’s Europa Conference League final against Fiorentina in what could be Declan Rice’s last game for the club.
The England midfielder looks set to be sold this summer and if the game in Prague is to be his farewell, boss David Moyes wants him to go out on a high.
“I thought he played great. It was another swashbuckling performance from him at times,” Moyes said of his performance at the King Power Stadium.
“I am really pleased how well he has played for us over the season, he has been exceptional and a credit to himself.
“And now he has the big moment to see if he can lift a trophy for West Ham and he needs to try and get ready to see if he can help us do that.”
Juventus 0-1 Milan: Giroud decides top-four battle in Rossoneri's favour
Milan secured a top-four Serie A finish with a 1-0 win at Juventus as Olivier Giroud's header dealt a knockout blow to the Bianconeri's own hopes of Champions League qualification.
Still reeling from their 10-point deduction and Monday's miserable 4-1 defeat at Empoli, Juve required a win at Allianz Stadium to take the top-four battle to the season's final matchday.
However, the Bianconeri's lack of attacking thrust was on full display once again, with Giroud scoring the only goal of the game with an outstanding header as half-time approached on Sunday.
The Rossoneri were comfortable from there as they ensured Juve's chaotic season will end on another sour note, piling more pressure on embattled head coach Massimiliano Allegri.
Sandro Tonali headed Junior Messias' delivery over as Milan started brightly, but Juve soon improved, with Angel Di Maria failing to hook Moise Kean's cut-back home on the stretch.
More Bianconeri chances came and went as Federico Chiesa hammered over and Kean worked Mike Maignan from distance, but Juve found themselves behind five minutes before half-time.
Davide Calabria's hanging cross from the right was met with a textbook header from Giroud, who planted the ball beyond Wojciech Szczesny's despairing dive.
Adrien Rabiot forced a comfortable save from Maignan as Juve toiled after the restart, failing to make any attacking headway without injured striker Dusan Vlahovic.
Szczesny stuck out a leg to deny Alexis Saelemaekers and Rafael Leao fired over on the break, while Danilo had a close-range effort blocked in a goalmouth scramble as Juve's bid for Champions League football ended with a whimper.
What does it mean? Milan profit from Juve woes
When Juventus' 10-point deduction was confirmed earlier this week, Milan were the chief beneficiary after being propelled into the top four.
Stefano Pioli's men were determined not to let that advantage slip here, the Rossoneri weathering the Juve storm midway through the first half and deserving the three points after Giroud's goal.
Milan thus completed just their third Serie A double over Juventus in the last 50 years, also doing so in the 1990-91 and 2009-10 campaigns.
Giroud the man of the moment
Giroud has so often been the man for the big occasion for both club and country, and he gave Szczesny no chance with a firm header just as Juventus looked to be in the ascendency.
The 36-year-old striker has now scored 12 times in Serie A this season, his best return in one of Europe's top five leagues since he hit as many Premier League goals for Arsenal in the 2016-17 campaign.
Fatal blow for Allegri?
Allegri has faced stern criticism for most of the campaign, and the pressure may just become intolerable now they will finish outside of Italy's top four for the first time since 2010-11 (when they finished seventh).
Having also fallen short in the Europa League semi-finals, the Bianconeri have suffered three successive defeats for the first time since doing so in 2011 under Luigi Delneri.
What's next?
Milan wrap up their Serie A season against Verona next Sunday, while Juventus will be playing for a Europa League place when they visit Udinese on the same day.
Dean Smith believes Leicester can immediately bounce back from relegation
Dean Smith says Leicester have the capability to bounce straight back to the Premier League after they were relegated on Sunday.
The Foxes became just the second former champions to drop out of the division, joining Blackburn in 1999, as their 2-1 final-day win against West Ham was not enough to keep them in the division due to Everton’s victory over Bournemouth.
They went 2-0 up thanks to goals from Harvey Barnes and Wout Faes, with Pablo Fornals pulling one back for the Hammers, but it counted for nothing.
Relegation represents a huge fall from grace as that remarkable 5000-1 title came in 2016 and they have enjoyed much more recent success as they won the FA Cup in 2021 under Brendan Rodgers, who also delivered back-to-back fifth-placed finishes.
It will be the Championship next season, though Smith, who replaced Rodgers on a short-term SOS mission last month, reckons it could be a short stay in the second tier.
He said: “The raw materials this club has is an elite club. It feels raw now and it hurts and everybody will be devastated but with the infrastructure it has got it can bounce back.
“That is what happens. There has been plenty of times where you have knocks and your job is to bounce back and make sure you improve on the things that let you down and I have no doubt the club will.
“I think it has to (reset). Any club that gets relegated, they have to find a way to bounce back. There are plenty of knocks in football, it is, we all know that week in, week out,about how you bounce back.
“From what I have seen with the infrastructure I see no reason why it can’t bounce straight back.”
It remains to be seen whether Smith will lead that charge next season as his future remains in the air.
His eight-game remit has now ended, but he has experience of winning promotion in the Championship with Aston Villa.
Smith says he has not yet thought about his long-term future but will speak to chairman Aiyawatt ‘Top’ Srivaddhanaprabha in a few days.
“Seven weeks, eight games, we didn’t speak about anything beyond that. I will speak to Top, who I have an awful lot of respect for, over the next couple of days and commiserate with him because the time and effort he puts into this football club is there for all to see.
“I am certainly not thinking about my future at the moment. It is raw getting relegated now, I’ll go away and reflect on it, speak to John (Rudkin) and Top. It’s a hypothetical question at the moment.”
Defeat ended a disappointing Premier League season for West Ham where they finished 14th, six points above the drop zone.
But boss David Moyes admitted his mind has been on the forthcoming Europa Conference League final against Fiorentina in Prague.
“It’s been on it for a long time, but what would you expect? Getting to European finals don’t come around too often. It’s been 47 years for West Ham.
“We’ve got to the final, we started back in August now going into June to the final and to try and have a good Premier League season and keep the competition going, it takes a big effort and it was a big effort to retain Premier League status and to ensure we keep winning in the cup.
“We wanted a draw because that would have got us one place higher in the league which might not mean much but it does to us, we were desperate to get there.
“We’ve got nothing to celebrate but playing against a team who has been relegated shows how devastating it can be.”
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