'They played their strongest line-up' - Tuchel reacts to Chelsea rout

Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel has explained what happened at the Orlando stadium against Arsenal.

The Blues suffered humiliation in the Florida Cup following a 4-0 defeat to city rivals Arsenal early Sunday morning.

The Gabriel Jesus-inspired Gunners proved to be too good for the Blues and showed their readiness for the new Premier League season.

Jesus, who was named man of the match, opened the scoring in the 15th minute to put Arsenal ahead.

Martin Odegaard doubled Arsenal's advantage when he made it 2-0 heading into the break.

In the second half, Bukayo Saka added a third to make it 3-0 before Sambi Lokonga wrapped up proceedings with the benediction to make it 4-0 at the death.

While some will say it's just a pre-season game, Chelsea manager, Tuchel doesn't believe that's the case.

Reacting to the embarrassing defeat, the German appeared to make excuses as he tried to provide insights into the humiliation his team suffered.

Despite having summer signings Kalidou Koulibaly and Raheem Sterling on the pitch, Tuchel said that Chelsea did not field their strongest team compared to the Gunners.

"We can argue they played with I think their strongest line-up; they've had now together several weeks and for more than one year."

"They've strengthened their line-up, played the same structure, and this is the line-up they'll try to start Premier League games. It was not our strongest lineup and this is part of an explanation but only a little part."

The former PSG and Borussia Dortmund coach is a little worried that his Blues are way off the pace and not ready for the Premier League which kicks off in just two weeks.

"I can not guarantee (Chelsea will be ready), he added.

"I saw today a team in Arsenal who are mentally committed to an idea of playing, a level of exhaustion, a level of physical commitment that we could not match."

"Also, a level of mental commitment that we lacked because we have a lot of players who are thinking about leaving and looking at their options. We have players that have left and I think at the moment that's obvious."

With players like the captain, Ceasar Azpilicueta and Marcos Alonso demanding moves away, Tuchel believes the players had their minds elsewhere.

"(I am) far from relaxed," Tuchel stated when asked if he is relaxed it's just pre-season.

"I think we deserved to lose – which is fair enough – because we were simply not good enough."

"We were absolutely not competitive (and) the worrying part is the level of commitment, physically and mentally, for this match was not the same, it was far higher for Arsenal than us."