Joe Prince-Wright
The fallout from Chelsea’s 5-2 defeat at home against West Brom continues and multiple reports claim that Antonio Rudiger and Kepa Arrizabalaga had a disagreement in training, to put it politely.
Rudiger, 28, was reportedly sent off the training pitch by the Chelsea coaching staff on Sunday and told to go inside their facility at Cobham by manager Thomas Tuchel.
Per the reports, Rudiger and Kepa pushed one another and had to be pulled apart after a heavy tackle from Rudiger in a five-a-side game, as the German center back was sent in from training early.
It is believed Rudiger apologized to Kepa afterwards, despite words between the pair also starting on the bench on Saturday, while Cesar Azpilicueta and Reece James were also arguing after the defeat to West Brom about a mistake from the Chelsea youngster.
Neither Rudiger or Kepa played in the heavy defeat at home to West Brom, the first defeat Tuchel has suffered in 15 games as Chelsea boss, with the former believed to be rested ahead of the Champions League quarterfinal v. FC Porto and the latter the second-choice goalkeeper behind Edouard Mendy.
Will this type of incident be a good or bad thing for Chelsea?
There are two ways to look at this: 1) Rudiger and Kepa are totally committed and are fully focused on helping Chelsea win trophies and finish in the top four this season. 2) The personalities of this group of players is a problem and clashes like this can escalate and spread throughout the team.
It seems like it will be the former. For now.
Tuchel demands total commitment to his methods and he seems like the type of manager who would encourage this kind of ‘management’ from his players, as long as they don’t go over the top.
Rudiger is a big personality and it is likely he, Azpilicueta and a few others will ‘set the tone’ for how Chelsea should respond to a heavy defeat to relegation fodder. Rudiger is a key player for Tuchel and this incident will underline to the younger players in the squad that the manner of the defeat to West Brom was not acceptable.
Let’s see if Tuchel can overcome the first bit of adversity he’s had to tackle since he took charge of Chelsea, and if the Blues’ star players can now pull together and prove the defeat to West Brom was just a minor hiccup.
These kind of incidents happen a lot on training grounds, but the timing of this particular bust-up is very interesting.
Rudiger, Kepa in Chelsea training ground bust-up originally appeared on NBCSports.com
