Thomas Tuchel complained about the state of the Stamford Bridge pitch following Chelsea’s dramatic defeat at home to Arsenal, saying the surface is “awkward” and “difficult” for his players.

Chelsea have conceded 11 goals in their last three matches at home and Tuchel described the amount of mistakes made by his players in recent games as “impossible”.

The Chelsea head coach admitted it sounded like an excuse to blame the pitch at Stamford Bridge but insisted that the unpredictability of the surface was behind Arsenal’s opening goal, scored by Eddie Nketiah after an error by Andreas Christensen.

“To say the pitch is difficult here, it sounds maybe like an excuse but it is a very difficult pitch we have here,” said Tuchel. “It is not in our favour and the ball bounces very, very awkwardly when it bounces to Andreas.”

Speaking about his team’s defensive lapses, Tuchel added: “It is a level of mistakes and amount of mistakes in consecutive games here at home which is impossible on this kind of level.

“It is simply impossible but we are doing this at the moment and you cannot win football games like this. It is impossible to win football matches when you do this amount of mistakes of this calibre. It is simply impossible. I don’t see it in any other matches. But I see it in consecutive matches of our games and it has to stop.”

Tuchel’s comments came after Cesar Azpilicueta was involved in an angry exchange with Chelsea fans after the final whistle. 

The Spanish defender was apparently angered by supporters’ reaction to the loss, and was captured on television cameras confronting one individual in the front row of Stamford Bridge’s West Stand. 

Azpilicueta, who had walked over to the stand specifically to confront the fan with his arms outstretched, was also seen to gesticulate at him before walking away. The supporter appeared to hold his hands up in apology (watch video below).