Maurizio Sarri was supposed to bring fast, free flowing football to Chelsea. That is still a work in progress but he has brought the fight back to the side.
Neil Warnock’s Cardiff City played as advertised. He said the side would not come to Stamford Bridge to park the bus and he was telling the truth. His side harassed and harried Chelsea for the opening 30 minutes in a way few sides had so far.
So when Cardiff scored a goal by taking advantage of Chelsea’s offside trap, it was a culmination of small things they were doing to frustrate the Blues. They were time wasting from the start. They were nibbling and pressing in all the right places. And those little aggressions caused mistakes to creep into the Blues’ game. The goal came as part of that.
But the key part, which has been seen before this season, is that Chelsea did not panic. In 2015/2016 or 2017/2018, the biggest thing that hurt the Blues was panic. There was an “oh no not again” mentality that crept into the side and fed off of itself.
But that mentality has been nonexistent with Sarri’s side this season. When they have gone down or gone level, they simply get back up, dust themselves off, and go again. Every single time, sticking to the plan has worked.
That shows not only a trust in what Sarri is asking them to do but also a fortitude that was sorely missing only a few months ago. Champions, or at least the sides that want to be in the race, have to have the ability to keep plugging away and fighting. Whatever Sarri has done behind the scenes has clearly worked on that front.
And what might be more important is that it is far from perfect yet. Chelsea is visually improving but is nowhere close to where Sarri wants them yet. The defense is still struggling with zones from time to time and the offside trap especially. The offense is still attempting to understand how to move and cover one another with the rotations.
Furthermore, when Chelsea went ahead, they did not push their luck in the second half. The Blues were patient with their build up and cautious in their approach. Was it necessarily what Sarri may have wanted to see? Probably not, but it helped to force Cardiff back into themselves. The chances became more prevalent as Chelsea stopped trying to force the vertical balls and started trying to create the situations for them.
Olivier Giroud had his best game since last season. Eden Hazard came too deep and central in the first half hour but adjusted enough to rightfully earn his hat trick. The midfield remained solid but did not have to dictate the entire play against Cardiff.
If one could take the first half hour against Arsenal and the last hour against Cardiff and combine the two, they would have the perfect start to finish performance from Chelsea. Of course, that is not how anything works but the signs of improvement continuing are there. Sarrismo will soon be fully integrated at Stamford Bridge and once it is, then talk of a title race can begin.