Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel claims he will prioritise Leeds United clash over Champions League tie with Zenit St Petersburg

Chelsea’s clash with the Whites this weekend comes on the back of defeat to West Ham and a narrow victory over struggling Watford, with recent form causing the Blues to slip from first to third in the Premier League table.

But before hosting Leeds, the Blues travel to Russia on Wednesday to carry out the final tie of the Champions League group stage.

Topping group H on goal difference, Chelsea go into the Zenit St Petersburg game with their place in the next round already confirmed.

However, tied on points with Juventus, the Blues must win against Zenit to avoid the possibility of finishing second and setting up an encounter with Real Madrid or Bayern Munich in the Round of 16.

But in his press conference ahead of his side’s visit to Russia, Tuchel suggested that he will be putting the title race first.

"On Saturday we will face a very intense team of Leeds, who have prepared the whole week for this match,” Tuchel said.

“So long story, short message, there’s a huge chance that we rest some players and maybe more importantly we give some players the load who need the load, the minutes and rhythm, to put it another way.”

Chelsea’s Premier League win rate has dropped from 80% in their first ten games of the season to 40% in their last five fixtures.

Ahead of the Whites clash, Tuchel claimed that, though the dip was frustrating, his team know what is required to regain form.

“You have a certain anger in you that you don’t have when you win,” said Tuchel.

“You have a certain anger and ambition to turn things around, and it makes you instantly at first feel very bad.

“But it also brings out the need in me personally to step up and show a reaction. We try to avoid it because everybody hates to lose, but obviously it happens.

“We analyse the performance and data again and I don’t think it’s necessary to ask the big questions. But we need to step up in details, and do our details to our standards, and we need to do this on the highest level, relentlessly.

“We have some space where we can improve in the details but it’s not about the big picture in the moment. We dropped some points against Man United, we found the solution to win a game at Watford.

“We lost with a freak shot at the end of the game at West Ham. We’ve had this before that we’ve lost games. We don’t like it, but we are not worried. We know what to do to win games.”

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