Chelsea's dramatic late win over Leeds United this past weekend was put into sharp perspective on Tuesday when Manchester City casually swatted aside Marcelo Bielsa's side 7-0.
Like Liverpool's faultless form in recent weeks, Tuchel has been confronted with the reality of the challenge to overcome the Premier League's last two winners in order to wrestle the prized domestic crown back to west London come May.
Any advantage must be seized upon and the crammed festive period whilst bringing its clear challenges also provides the platform to gain serious ground in rapid time, something the Blues have not discovered in recent years.
Too often Christmas has ushered in a period of discontent for blue hearts rather than festive cheer.
This year must be different if Tuchel has any hope of overthrowing the league's two consistent heavyweights since 2018.
The gap to Manchester City at the end of last season was 19, not as awful as some previous years but still a sizeable gap to close in under 12 months, for Tuchel to do this he needed to radically improve Chelsea's form where soo many sloppy points had been dropped before.
Since the start of the 2021/22 Premier League season, the numbers show a more encouraging trend.
Comparing this season's results to last in identical fixtures Tuchel's side have already gained three points.
Where those points have been gained is wins away to Arsenal and Leicester, whilst home victories Aston Villa and Southampton turned two points into three.
The nine gained against the promoted trio of Brentford, Norwich and Watford are hard to measure neatly against similar opponents in 2020/21.
Chelsea did drop points away to West Brom, before losing 5-2 at home in the reverse fixture. Whilst the Blues gained maximum points against Fulham and four versus Leeds.
Draws to Liverpool and Burnley, with the added away defeat to West Ham have slightly dampened those numbers but still show improved performance.
Starting on Sunday afternoon when Chelsea travel to Molineux to face Wolves, a run of four league ties offer up a unique chance for the European Champions to gain an 11-point boost.
Away to Wolves last season, Pedro Neto's 95th-minute winner began a series of terrible results that eventually cost Frank Lampard his job.
A week later on Boxing Day, Tuchel will aim to rectify a defeat on the final day of last season to Aston Villa. Beyond that two more points can be acquired at home to Graham Potter's Brighton who drew 0-0 at Stamford Bridge back in April.
And finally, the blockbuster clash with Jurgen Klopp's Reds on the 2nd of January at home offers the chance to beat Liverpool at home for the first time in the league since 2018 under Antonio Conte.
Chelsea have not been offered such a run to make huge gains on last season so far and although for some may this may appear as irrelevant, it is actually a great measuring stick for Tuchel's progress.
The coming weeks will determine how much Chelsea have improved on last season's shortcomings.
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