It’s been just over nine months since Thomas Tuchel was appointed as Chelsea manager and turned the side from inconsistent strugglers into Champions League winners.
Surely, it is time for the man leading the team at the top of the table to be named Premier League Manager of the Month?
Last month Chelsea won all four of their top-flight matches, which opened up a three-point gap over Liverpool and put them five better off than reigning champions Manchester City.
Tuchel has won the gong once before, in March when he went unbeaten with wins away to Liverpool, at home to Everton and an away draw at Leeds.
The Blues started October with a 3-1 win over Southampton before the international break. James Ward-Prowse’s penalty was the only goal they conceded in the Premier League last month.
They followed that win up with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Brentford. Keeping a clean sheet and getting three points felt huge due to Chelsea’s habit of slipping up in such games. Tuchel appears to have made that a thing of the past, even if he had Edouard Mendy’s heroics to thank on this occasion.
The next game in the league was the biggest win of Tuchel’s tenure as Chelsea demolished relegation candidates Norwich 7-0 What made the thrashing all the more impressive was forwards Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner both being absent through injury.
They then finished the month off with a 3-0 win at Newcastle, who proved stubborn foes for 65 minutes until Reece James found the breakthrough.
So that was four games played, four wins, 14 goals scored and one conceded. No other team won all their Premier League games in October. Chelsea also chalked up a 4-0 comfortable win over Malmo and knocked Southampton out of the Carabao Cup on penalties to remain unbeaten for the month in all competitions.
One thing is for certain, it’s not going to be Nuno EspÃrito Santo who won the first manager of the month award if the season, or Ole Gunnar Solskjær for that matter, that wins it this month.
So far, Tuchel has taken charge of 47 Chelsea matches – winning 30 of them in 90 minutes, with three more victories by way of penalty shootouts this season.
So far we have lost seven games under his management but the most impressive stats are when you look at the team’s defensive record since his appointment.
Chelsea have conceded 23 goals in Tuchel’s 47 matches. Five of them came in a crazy game against West Brom right after his March Manager of the Month award. Overall, Tuchel’s side have kept 29 clean sheets so far, with a goal difference of +50.
