Chelsea duo Antonio Rudiger and Kepa Arrizabalaga won’t receive a punishment from the club after their training ground spat on Sunday, Thomas Tuchel has confirmed.
Rudiger and Kepa came together on Sunday at the training ground where things heated up during their training session following the defeat the previous day to West Brom at Stamford Bridge.
Tensions ran high at the Cobham training ground which saw Rudiger removed from the session early. He did apologise and clear the air with his teammate, Kepa, and the matter is now seen as closed by the club.
The Chelsea head coach was pleased with the response of Rudiger, who handled the situation in the correct manner after he was removed from the training session early.
“No, I would tell you if it was but it was not,” said Tuchel initially on how serious it was, before going on later to say it was a serious incident.
“It was nothing to do with the defeat, it was just an incident in training.
“It got heated between Toni and Kepa so we calmed the situation down immediately. I don’t want to play it down with anything artificial, these are things we don’t want to accept but they can happen.
“They are all competitors and want to win training matches. The reaction was not okay, but the reaction to it, how the guys handled the situation, especially Toni and Kepa, was amazing and showed how much respect they have for each other. They cleared the air immediately.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfjdLdCgSwuqIuQyALbHO8X9WEbTfmnZ3QjUEBC56xZo-op3g/viewform?usp=sf_link“This was the most important thing so there was nothing left the day after. We spoke about the issue and then it was solved. This was the main part. They sorted it out straight after training in a very honest, humble and very direct way.
“That showed me they have very good character. Toni sorted it out directly, and it was a strong and brave thing to do. So I am happy with the way they dealt with it.”
Tuchel confirmed that neither would be handed a punishment because of the what the matter was dealt with after the incident.
Rudiger is expected to start on Wednesday night in Seville against Porto for the first leg.
He said: “No punishment so far because of the way they dealt with it. The reaction was an immediate reaction. They made it clear for everybody what happened. Toni sorted it out directly which was also absolutely necessary. It was a strong and brave thing to do. It was the only right thing to do, to clear the air immediately.
“We continued and made our point clear, from the club and from me, that we are happy with the way they dealt with it but these are things that we don’t like to accept but for this situation, there is no further punishment.”
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