Chelsea’s loss to Tottenham hardly worth so many fans losing their minds
Like Chelsea’s season-long unbeaten run, Maurizio Sarri’s honeymoon period is over. With the Twitterati overanalysing the weekend’s performance against Tottenham and desperately looking for answers and scapegoats, let’s not forget Sarri’s Chelsea are very much a work in progress.
Maurizio Sarri has said as nuch himself and the evidence has been there for all to see in recent games. Yet with a few decent results, Chelsea supporters were lulled into a false sense of belief that his arrival, with too few personnel changes from Antonio Conte’s spell, would reap the instant rewards Roman Abramovich demands.
The initial euphoria of the new man and spike in performance it brings has slowly but surely ebbed away. The real work for Sarri and his backroom staff must now begin. Blues fans, for their part, must show patience whilst that process takes shape.
The jury is still out on Sarri, though. He arrived at Stamford Bridge short on the one criteria set in stone on the job description: winning trophies. However, qualification for the knock-out stages of the Europa League beckons as does a League Cup quarterfinal at home to Bournemouth. With a top-four spot still achievable, it’s much too early write this season off just yet.
The good news is the issues Chelsea are currently suffering from are not the result of a player revolt against the manager or the manager against the owner. The problem seems to be implementing the system annoyingly tagged “Sarrismo” or “Sarriball” with the current squad of players. Steering clear of the anal analysing of formations and player ratings, and with the dust settling and the need for click-bait reactions abating, a more simplistic analysis is required.
Tottenham started Saturday’s game much better than Chelsea. They pressed high and Dele Alli marked Jorginho out of the game. The early goals disrupted whatever Sarri had discussed in the dressing room 15 minutes before the kickoff, and the game was gone.
At 1-0, though, Martin Atkinson should have awarded Chelsea a penalty for a foul on Eden Hazard. He chose not to, and minutes later Tottenham doubled their lead.
Of course, one poor decision by an official did not bring about the defeat. This was more a simple case of the better team on the day winning.
No Chelsea supporter wants to give the north London outfit any credit, but the Spursy Tottenham we all love didn’t show up. Whilst Blues fans were mocking Thibaut Courtois after his Real Madrid side suffered another embarrassing defeat, Mauricio Pochetino was once again looking to avenge that famous 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge two years ago that gave Leicester City the title. To be fair to Pochettino, he out-thought Sarri in the dugout as his team outfought the opposition on the pitch.
Moving forward, Maurizio Sarri has to redress the balance of a team that looks disjointed and, as a result, dysfunctional. The worry for Chelsea fans is that this defeat has been coming for a few weeks and the Italian either didn’t see it at all or was unable to circumvent it when he did.
However, this was just one defeat – against a bitter rival, yes – but just one defeat. There’s really no need for the Twitterati to be shouting at the internet naming scapegoats just yet.
Next. Maurizio Sarri is not Pep Guardiola so stop the comparisons. dark
You could almost have forgiven Sarri if he’d left the pitch holding one finger to the sky, Mourinho-esque, screaming at the cameras and anyone who’d listen… “ONE DEFEAT!”