Every great managerβs vision for his team needs to survive those bleak afternoons when the rest of the world cries out for him to change, and perhaps with that in mind Maurizio Sarri decided that after defeat he would go where only a few of his Chelsea predecessors have dared.
The Italian requested post-match that we switch language to his native tongue and proceeded to deliver, via an interpreter who held this brittle clubβs future in his hands for 12 gripping minutes, what might be described as the directorsβ cut post-match monstering with bonus features. It was delivered in a reflective style but it certainly showed no instinct to hold back on a full-scale demolition of Sarriβs playersβ attitude, determination and general mental fortitude.
What had been a very bad Chelsea performance, encompassing a first attempt on the Arsenal goal after a mere 82 minutes played was transformed for the benefit of the press and club officials into one of these periodic crises that strike the club. He said it in his post-match television interviews too and some at the club will fear what comes next, with the team now required to rally in time for Thursdayβs League Cup semi-final second leg against Tottenham Hotspur on Thursday.
There were eight players in the 14 used by Sarri over the course of 96 minutes who had won one or more Premier League titles and even under Jose Mourinhoβs second spell decline they were not accustomed to this level of feedback in the public sphere. Sarri wondered aloud why his βgroup of players is extremely difficult to motivateβ and why they did not seem to have what he saw as the βferocity in their mentalityβ.
It was difficult to know whether he was simply just pushing his luck when he said that he was βaware of the fact this is never going to be a team well known for its battling and fighting qualitiesβ and that βthose aren't the characteristics that we haveβ. This was a man who seemed to be bemoaning the faults of a mediocre child rather than a manager assessing the qualities of a team that included NβGole Kante, Eden Hazard, Cesar Azpilicueta and a range of other players with big reputations.
It was not hard to see why Sarri was annoyed even if he brushed off the question of his own tactical culpability a little too easily. Both Kante and Hazard were out of position again which is no-oneβs choice but the manager who has tried to rewrite the basic principles of the team and made them look much less like the successful Chelsea of the modern era.
Either way, it was part of a match-plan that seemed to be caught in some kind of corrupted file, a loop of possession β Chelsea had much more of the ball than Arsenal β going nowhere and yielding nothing. Still, Sarri seems adamant that the responsibility lies elsewhere and in criticising his own player this hard, this early he is now playing for some very high stakes.
It took a pragmatic, well-organised Arsenal to beat them with two goals that originated from set-pieces and a willingness to be without the ball for long periods of the match, while Chelsea had 64 per cent of the possession. In the meantime, Sarri waits for Gonzalo Higuain to walk into this bleak midwinter for his team with things starting to tighten up around fourth place.
The question for now is not how close Chelsea might stay to the top three places, but whether they should be glancing anxiously behind at the threat to their own Champions League spot and how Sarriβs latest attack might play out in that regard. Chelsea have lost four of their last nine league games now, just three points better off in fourth place than both Arsenal and Manchester United who are divided by goal difference.
Β This was Unai Emery said, a game that Arsenal could not afford to lose if they were to stay in touch with the top four and they never looked like doing so. An exceptional finish from Alexandre Lacazette on 14 minutes laid the groundwork for a hard-running, well-organised containment of this improvised Chelsea attacking unit. Arsenal looked comfortable with what Emery is asking them to do β playing for the most part without the ball but hitting the opposition on the break.
They took their chances, especially a second from Laurent Koscielny that came off the captainβs shoulder in a good spell before half-time. It was a disciplined Arsenal performance that keeps them in the hunt for the top four after that defeat away to West Ham last week and reflected well on their manager whose decision to substitute Lacazette in the second half was booed nonetheless. It was all done without Mesut Ozil who returned to the bench as an unused substitute in a gameplan that never seemed to require him.
If anything, Chelsea had looked more effective when David Luiz had looked up and struck a ball long to try to pick out the runner in behind the home defence, as he had done after 18 minutes with Pedro. This is Chelsea of 2019, a team committed to passing the ball at all times, but not always passing the ball well.
The first goal was created by Hector Bellerin, later carried off after falling awkwardly. He drove a pass in from the right on 14 minutes and Lacazette stilled the ball with the softest of feet. He turned on his right foot and was past Alonso and Pedro before they could react, his shot stabbed quickly past Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Arsenal were counter-attacking well on all the Chelsea possession and the second came on 37 minutes when a corner was half-cleared to Sokratis on the edge of the area. His sliced cross dropped perfectly for Koscielny who mistimed his flick of the head but found that his shoulder worked just as well, steering the ball well beyond the reach of Arrizabalaga.
βToday we didn't play our own football,β Sarri lamented later. βOur defending ended up with us running backwards rather than pressing further up the pitch. We should be playing one or two touches, not seven or eight. We don't want that to happen.β Reluctantly he changed in the second half, with Hazard moved wide when Olivier Giroud came on but none of it worked, and for that reason perhaps Sarri decided to take on a group of players who have in the past seen off bigger managerial names than him.
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