Chelsea are 2-0 this season after a flattering opener and then an unconvincing win against Arsenal. Fans should enjoy everything Maurizio Sarri is doing, but must prepare themselves to stick through the inevitable hiccups.
The summer of 2016. Antonio Conte was already announced as the Chelsea boss, so no wonder Chelsea fans were glued to their TV sets as Conte sat in the Italy dugout at Euro 2016. There they saw a strong passionate man who lashed out at the players if a pass went wrong and celebrated goals by climbing the dugout. They were in awe as his incredibly well-drilled machine was only a penalty shootout loss away from making it to the semifinals.
Chelsea fans lauded their new manager. They’d landed a hipster manager who was all about hard work and would drill his ideas into the players until they translated into wins. And despite a shaky start, Conte worked wonders as his side won the Premier League while changing football around the country.
Snap back to the present. Antonio Conte is gone. The majority of fans wanted him out, and a new fever of Sarri-ball has gripped the fan base. They have themselves another hipster manager: the chain-smoking ex-banker who promised to bring attacking football to Stamford Bridge. Everyone has their own ideas about how many goals Alvaro Morata is going to score and how much Eden Hazard will enjoy himself this season. GIFs of Chelsea playing “beautiful football” are plastered all over Twitter.
The Sarri hype train steamed up even more as Chelsea came out on top against Arsenal. But for 15 minutes right before the second half, Chelsea looked like a youth team with absolutely zero idea how to defend. Had it not been for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan losing their composure in front of goal, Chelsea could have endured a massive hammering from the Gunners.
As the Blues shipped two goals and looked like conceding even more during that period, Chelsea Twitter turned itself back into an ugly dark cloud as fans tore into their players. David Luiz had gone back to being a PlayStation defender, Marcos Alonso was not a left back, and so on.
Good thing Chelsea managed to get back to their feet in the second half, or it would have been GIFs of Hector Bellerin finding space down the channels rather than Chelsea’s build-up play going around Twitter.
Maurizio Sarri is a new manager in a new league. Chelsea are a team changing their formation and their style of play. Sarri himself has asked for three months until his style of play takes hold on the pitch. It might take even longer for them to reach the heights their fans expect. Along the way Chelsea will have awesome sequences of build-up play, defense-cutting passes and high-scoring wins. But they will also have plenty of inconsistencies, maybe a sustained winless streak and periods where Chelsea have no idea what to do with the ball while trying to keep hold of it.
So with Sarri fever in full swing, it’s important for Blues fans to stick with their manager and players. Otherwise it’ll be just another case of the fans hyping their hipster manager, only to grow bitter and sour against him if and when things go south.