As the boss pointed out, it was not so much that his team were poorer when it came to direct one-on-one contests with their Hornet rivals across the pitch, it was that they did not manage to create enough of those contests in the first place.
As a consequence, the pressure Watford were able to put us under resulted in Chelsea players being called upon to make 40 clearances from the danger area, contrasting with Watford’s nine. Twelve of our clearances were by Toni Rudiger. Claudio Ranieri’s side won six corners to our none.
While the Blues did win more duels, aerials contests and tackles than our opponents, it was not to the degree Tuchel is used to seeing from his table-toppers, and possession was split 50-50 between the teams pretty much throughout the game.