Thomas Tuchel must rediscover golden touch if Chelsea are to avoid bleak midwinter

In the midst of a slump in form Chelsea need Tuchel, the original thinker, to plot a path back to the top

Thomas Tuchel was midway through an answer when he interrupted himself to ask if Manchester City had won. Confirmation came. “OK, so that’s predictable,” he said, his lack of confidence in Newcastle United justified even before he knew their margin of defeat. But the gap between English and European champions had also widened. City are now six ahead of Chelsea.

Tuchel pronounced himself satisfied with his point at Molineux. He had begun his own rationalisation of a stalemate with Wolves with the indisputable assertion that “the circumstances are the circumstances”. There were the seven Covid cases in the Chelsea squad, the responsible approach that meant Kai Havertz was omitted against Everton and then Jorginho against Wolves when they had symptoms but had not tested positive. While he had 14 outfield players left, he said, “look in more detail”. Trevoh Chalobah, he claimed, had only had two training sessions, N’Golo Kante and Mateo Kovacic one apiece. Perhaps theirs is a tale of our times, of a superclub’s supersized squad diminished by a virus, forced to play after others managed not to but nevertheless boasting such resources that Ross Barkley, a veteran of 33 England caps, was left unused. The governing body rejected Chelsea’s request to call the game off. “We had an opinion and the Premier League had an opinion,” Tuchel said. “We agree to disagree.”

The circumstances – including Wolves’ formidable defensive record and the redoubtable resistance of Romain Saiss, Conor Coady and co – made it a good draw. The context made it a bad one. Chelsea are now playing catch-up and they have slipped further behind. Tuchel outlined where a season that may have been derailed. “The problem are not the points we dropped today,” he said. “The points that hurt are the points we lost at home against Manchester United, against Burnley and against Everton. These are the six points that hurt.”

Whether he was bloodied in the process remains to be seen. The nature of managing Chelsea is that the first slump tends to also prove the worst and the last. Their previous Champions League winner, Roberto Di Matteo, was gone in November. Tuchel’s predecessor, Frank Lampard, began December top of the league and was gone in January, with a setback at Molineux part of his undoing. That Tuchel’s weakened team showed greater toughness is an indication that history may not repeat itself.

Yet this has been his worst month in charge of Chelsea. In itself, that reflects the success of going from 10th to 4th last season and then leading the league this, of conjuring a Champions League win from a side who started 2021 in a nosedive. By drawing 0-0 with Wolves, Tuchel came full circle: he got the same result in his Chelsea bow. In January, he unveiled a 3-4-3 formation he devised on the plane, forging Europe’s most frugal defence in an brilliant example of problem-solving.

Tuchel has often seemed the decision-maker extraordinaire, the man whose choices came with added insight. Even the leftfield moves seemed product of inspiration, not desperation. Not at Molineux, where Tuchel displayed more creativity in his deployment of the last men standing than his side did on the pitch. His back three was abandoned with three-quarters of the game remaining. Hakim Ziyech started deep in midfield and Reece James spent much of the game on the right wing, neither with much success. At least Saul Niguez was not asked to reprise his strange turn as a false nine against Everton but Tuchel, despite a Ranieri-esque fondness for tinkering, could not turn match-winner. With the notable exceptions of James and Mason Mount, Chelsea have had too few of late, but Tuchel has also stopped being the catalyst, the manager with the golden touch.

He looked agitated on the touchline in Wolverhampton, though he sounded more philosophical and serene afterwards. The chances are that he would welcome a break and, as Brentford and Aston Villa, supposedly Chelsea’s next two opponents, have had games called off, he may get one, but his side could be further behind before they play again. Thinking time will afford him more opportunity to find a solution to a slide, to transform a second successive season. A point at Molineux might have been a damage-limitation exercise, as a team who suddenly kept conceding only allowed one shot on target, and he scarcely looks in the Lampard death spiral. But if this is another bleak midwinter for Chelsea, they may again need Tuchel the original thinker to plot a path back to the top. They need Tuchel to be Tuchel again.