The reaction by the players and manager after Chelsea lost to Tottenham was always going to be key. Maurizio Sarri messed up his part of the equation.
The loss to Tottenham was the first loss of the season. At the same time, it was an utterly embarrassment by Chelsea and was born after weeks of issues finally accumulated. To accept the loss is one thing. To ignore that there were very issues that led to it is an entirely other thing.
Two groups get to set the tone to this: the players and the manager. The players will have their say in the Europa League and against Fulham. Maurizio got to have his say in a presser before the PAOK match. Simply put, he made a mess of it.
Sarri could have eased the tension following the match with the right words. Instead, it appears he has buried his head in the sand. There is a sense that Sarri wants the situation to bend to his will rather than bend himself to the situation.
It started with the inevitable “should N’Golo Kante and Jorginho swap?” question. The reasons why that would not work have already been spoken about. But Sarri took a new direction; blame Kante for how things went against Tottenham.
Kante, Sarri says, was too attacking. He tried to do too much on his own and that left Jorginho exposed. This ignores that Kante was possibly the best midfielder against Tottenham and ignores Sarri’s own role in things.
Mateo Kovacic and Kante have been playing “backwards” for weeks now. Kante has often ended up involved in more attacks as Kovacic has stayed deeper. If Sarri wanted the opposite to be true, why did he not do anything? To point at Kante now for doing what he has been doing for weeks and say “no this is wrong” feels like scapegoating for failing to fix an issue in the first place.
But enough on the Tottenham match. The presser then turned towards Manchester City. The gap between Chelsea and Manchester City? Sarri says it is too much.
Now, it is hard to ignore that Manchester City is on another planet right now. They won the league in historic fashion last year and are somehow statistically better this season. The “gap” currently sits at seven points. Seven. The gap from last year? That flavors now but it is not the current reality.
The fact of the matter is that it is only November (soon to be December). City could (and did in Pep Guardiola’s first season) skid in the winter and see other teams catch them. Chelsea, being only seven points behind, could easily be that team. But not if the manager has already resigned to the fact that they are “uncatchable”.
Many see Liverpool as the only team capable of challenging City right now and they are grinding out results. Historically, Chelsea would have a better chance at catching City. But Sarri is telling the world that the gap is impossible. It would be very hard to believe Jurgen Klopp is doing the same. A seven point gap in November is very easily eroded, but only if the right motivation is there. If the manager does not have it, neither will the team.
Which goes back in to the mentality issues Chelsea has had in recent weeks. Sarri likes to talk about them but does not seem to want to do anything about them. He seems more confused by the situation than understanding of it.
The presser inevitably turned towards Callum Hudson-Odoi who is rumored to be wanted by about everyone but Chelsea. Sarri thinks the winger needs to improve and says he must make room for Pedro and Victor Moses. But why?
Any game Hudson-Odoi would play in, Pedro should be a non issue if the rotation is happening correctly. And Sarri seems well over Moses, so why is that a consideration at all?
Furthermore, Chelsea needs just one point to guarantee first place in the group. That is no guarantee but it as close as possible without actually being settled. The best Sarri can do is say Hudson-Odoi needs to improve and will be in the 18. A near friendly and Sarri cannot say “yes Hudson-Odoi will start and show us if he is ready or not”.
All of this smacks as a manager looking at all these situations and saying “they will change if I continue on this course”. The Premier League is a graveyard of managers who have said similarly. Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola may have come in thinking the same, but they eventually found ways to adjust to the league. They did not wait for the world to bend to their will; they bent to the world.
This presser could have changed the narrative after Tottenham. Instead, in merely entrenched the existing ones. Sarri will dogmatically stick to his way at the cost of youth, points, or whatever. The writing is on the wall here. Sarri will either become one of the rare managers who changes the league or he will become another member of the “they stuck to their way despite everything” club.