Petr Cech explains why he's not convinced Chelsea will win the Champions League

Former Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech has admitted that Chelsea face an uphill battle in trying to defend their Champions League trophy this season.

The Blues beat Manchester City 1-0 in the final in Porto on May 29 to win the Champions League just five months into Thomas Tuchel's spell as manager.

They have made an impressive start to the 2021/22 season, beating Villarreal in the Super Cup and taking 10 points from a possible 12 in the Premier League while conceding just once.

Chelsea kicked off their European campaign with a 1-0 win over Zenit St Petersburg at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday to make it 23 clean sheets in 36 matches under Tuchel.

Petr Cech is now technical and performance advisor at Chelsea ( Image:

Jan Kruger/Getty Images)

As well as looking solid at the back, they are also improved in attack where Romelu Lukaku has hit the ground running with four goals in as many games following his £97.5million move from Inter Milan.

Despite their brilliant start to the season, Cech, who is now the technical and performance advisor at the club, is urging caution.

"It is really difficult to retain the Champions League because you need an element of everything going right and you need to be lucky as well," he wrote for the Chelsea website.

"For Real Madrid to win it three times in a row, that was absolutely exceptional and you have to really take your hat off to a team for doing that because it's a title that is really so hard to retain.

"When you come in as a champions, everybody has extra pressure and that adds to the complexity of the whole thing. You need everything to go right, no unlucky games or bad decisions.

"You are playing the best teams in Europe throughout the competition and everybody has the same motivation and quality to go through.

"That is what makes it so unique and so difficult but we started well with a good win against a tough opponent in Zenit St Petersburg so now we keep building from here."

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Romelu Lukaku scored Chelsea's winner in the 1-0 victory over Zenit St Petersburg in their Champions League opener

Chelsea had just two shots on target against Zenit and it took a textbook header from Lukaku to breach the Russian side's defences in the second half.

Meanwhile, Antonio Rudiger also had to be alert to snuff out a chance for Sardar Azmoun and the hosts were fortunate that Artem Dzyuba was off target late on at the back post.

Tuchel's side face a London derby against rivals Tottenham next up on Sunday before hosting Aston Villa in the third round of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday.

Chelsea's 10 points has them joint top of the Premier League alongside Manchester United, Liverpool and Everton.