Maurizio Sarri has exploded on to the English scene rapidly in his opening period. How did the Chelsea manager do overall?
Maurizio Sarri arrived later than expected at Chelsea. Napoli had already replaced him but remained difficult over negotiations with fully releasing him from his contract. When they finally did, it was after Antonio Conte had already started preseason. Sarri had little time to change the team with several key figures away in Russia.
And change it he did. Through fits and starts and a lot of luck, Sarri’s first quarter came out pretty well overall. So how did Sarri grade on the team’s form, attitude, tactics, and rotation in the opening salvo?
Chelsea’s Form, Grade: A-
Over Sarri’s first eleven competitive matches with Chelsea, the squad achieved an impressive nine wins and two draws while scoring 22 goals and conceding just six times.
The Blues’ form was gained slowly through time. Preseason showed little improvement but since then the team has improved (mostly) game to game. It is hard to knock a team that is undefeated eleven games into the season even if all of them were not the prettiest of wins.
The draw against Liverpool was acceptable though somewhat disappointing given the closeness of the title race. The draw against West Ham was much more hurtful considering West Ham’s form going into that match. The Hammers shut the Blues down and they had no reply. So that is the only reason Sarri fails to get a perfect grade for the form of the team in the opening fixtures.