The 2018/19 Premier League football season is still in its infancy, but with Chelsea competing against Liverpool for the top spot, things are on the up after Antonio Conte’s final faltering season in charge.
Chelsea’s first four games have seen Maurizio Sarri settle into his new job with some confidence. He’s resolutely stuck to his formulaic possession-based playing beliefs, quickly grabbing four wins out of four. He achieved those results by not only instituting tried and tested methods among Antonio Conte’s former squad, but by also using tried and tested players.
If Chelsea FC wanted to make full use of the talent pool they produce at Cobham, they made the wrong call in appointing Maurizio Sarri. Where Chelsea have become serial winners under the ownership of Roman Abramovich, Sarri has a staggering record of under-achievement in management. What are the chances that a man who has won next to nothing managerially will be worrying about integrating Callum Hudson-Odoi or even the more experienced Ruben Loftus-Cheek into his plans?
Sarri is in SW6 to bolster his CV and he’s landed on his feet. The saying goes “opposites attract.” If attraction equals success then Sarri and Chelsea are a match made in heaven.
Chelsea are not even being mentioned as possible candidates for Premier League success this season. The media moguls cannot see beyond Manchester City or Liverpool as title-winners next May. There are extenuating circumstances that give Chelsea more of a chance than most would like to think, though.
The two north-west teams will have Champions League football distracting them for the coming months. Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp won’t have quite the same opportunities to rest and rotate as Maurizio Sarri will. Chelsea ought to be able to overcome Videoton, PAOK and BATE Borisov without their first string of players.
Something that is severely underestimated by most, in denial, is the winning mentality that exists within the club. This is the one thing about Chelsea that really irritates opposing fans. It cannot be coincidental that under Roman Abramovich the Blues have consistently won trophies, whether their manager is new to the job or a second season veteran.
Maurizio Sarri has a great chance to grab some silverware for his personal trophy cabinet this season. Chelsea are competing in four competitions. They will almost certainly win at least one of them. Whilst ‘the kids’ will have to wait for Sarri to feather his managerial nest for the standard couple of seasons, their time will come.
It’s a work in progress that has already begun at Derby County. Fikayo Tomori and Mason Mount must consider themselves the chosen ones as they learn their trade under the watchful eye of Chelsea manager-in-waiting Frank Lampard.
Maurizio Sarri will be a success at Chelsea because Chelsea have extremely good players. All those players appear to need to bring in that success is a comfortable working environment. Ketchup on the lunch table and a nice cosy night at home prior to a home game are some of the small things Sarri has done that can make a big difference.
Let’s give Sarri some footballing credit, though. From what we’ve seen so far, his style of football is one that is to be admired. If there’s any suffering to be done, it’s certainly going to be with the ball. His whole possession-based tiki-taka has drawn criticism from certain quarters, with some saying there is no end product. The attacking stats in the game against Newcastle United were damning, but the end result was a win.
Sarri said himself it will take a few months until the team are playing to his complete vision. If he can keep picking up wins by wearing the opposition down minute by minute then all power to the man.
The real tests are still to come. But the run of fixtures he’s been presented with at the start of his first season in English football give him a real opportunity to pick up those first trophies. Why shouldn’t one of them be the Premier League?