Chelsea: Maurizio Sarri must take a long-view on Eden Hazard’s return

Manchester City will be without Kevin de Bruyne for at least two months with a freak injury sustained in practice. Maurizio Sarri must be cautious to ensure Chelsea don’t lose their own Belgian talisman the same way.

Eden Hazard is likely to start against Arsenal on Saturday. But if he does not, or if Maurizio Sarri ends Hazard’s day unusually early in the second half, Sarri laid the groundwork for his decision in his pre-match press conference.

Sarri described the situation facing top players as “dangerous,” with the World Cup semifinalists having less than a month between their final game in Russia and the opening of their club season. Those players all had three weeks off after the World Cup, but their clubs are under considerable pressure to bring them back into the lineup as quickly as possible given their importance to the team and the importance of early-season results.

Of Chelsea’s final batch of World Cup returnees, N’Golo Kante was Chelsea’s only starter last week. Sarri said Kante was “very quickly ready to play.” Once again, though, Kante is a genetic and physical outlier, i.e., he’s an indescribable freak of nature, as all football fans surely know by now. Kante can hardly be a benchmark for other players’ readiness or capabilities.

Kevin de Bruyne’s injury could be a wake-up call for coaches and leagues. Whether they heed it, well, that’s always the issue. As John Brewin said this morning:

"[S]ome of the globe’s best players are being treated like low-grade, all-weather handicap racehorses as clubs rush them back to action far too prematurely. – Paddy Power"

In keeping with their last-man-out perspective on a winter break, the Premier League was the first of the major domestic leagues to open their season after the World Cup. Serie A, Ligue 1 and La Liga get underway this weekend, and the Bundesliga will open next weekend. While the additional week or two are certainly welcome, the amount of rest the players receive is still insufficient. The off-season is short enough for those players not on international duty, and those players must contend with the stresses of a full intercontinental preseason.

Maurizio Sarri and his counterparts only have so much wiggle room to heed the pleadings of their sports science and physio staffs and minimize their top internationals’ minutes for a few extra weeks. Kevin de Bruyne’s injury was a freak accident, an unpredictable statistical anomaly. A loss is very much predictable when a team keeps players like Eden Hazard on the bench against a top-six competitor. Club boards tend not to reward managers for random bad things (injuries) not happening when regular bad things (losses) become, well, regular.

Chelsea will need Eden Hazard against Arsenal more than they did against Huddersfield. If Chelsea can take an early lead against the Gunners, Sarri should give Hazard an early ovation and let Callum Hudson-Odoi enjoy the extra minutes at Stamford Bridge in a London derby.

For the next few weeks, the World Cup should still factor into Sarri’s and the staff’s squad usage. Otherwise the World Cup may impose it itself on his decision-making, as it did to Pep Guardiola.