Brighton vs. Chelsea: Three things to look for from Maurizio Sarri’s XI
By George Perry
Chelsea head to Brighton ready to pick up their Premier League momentum where they left off with the win over Manchester City.
Has it been three days yet? Yes? OK, time for more football. Here are a few things to look for as Chelsea face Brighton.
1. Maurizio Sarri plots a potentially strikerless future
Alvaro Morata and Olivier Giroud each played a half of Chelsea’s sleep-walk against MOL Vidi on Thursday. Morata did very little before coming off just become halftime with an injury. Giroud scored a very un-Giroud goal to salvage a shred of respect for Chelsea’s group stage finale. Yet like their unhyphenated teammates, neither really stood out in Hungary and Maurizio Sarri could justifiably start neither against Brighton.
Eden Hazard’s turn at false-nine against Manchester City looks increasingly like the start of a trend. Olivier Giroud is too much a “target man” striker and is too slow for the regular pace of Sarrismo. Sarri seems to trust Alvaro Morata less by the day. Neither Tammy Abraham nor Michy Batshuayi are likely to return in January, and both have large decks stacked against them playing even if they were in Blue.
And so Hazard could complete the transformation of Chelsea to the English Napoli. If Sarri cannot have Gonzalo Higuain, give him a Belgian winger as a false-nine every day of the week. Brighton will make for a more enjoyable performance from Eden Hazard’s perspective, so Sarri could give him another go at the position to let him see what Dries Mertens had so many good things to say about.
2. How high up the pitch will N’Golo Kante stay?
Perhaps he needed a cigarette or perhaps he was riding the momentum of the City win while ignoring the MOL Vidi slogfest. Whatever the cause, Maurizio Sarri was having none of it when a reporter asked another question about N’Golo Kante’s place on the pitch.
"I think that Kante in my style of football has to play [further forward]. I can understand that somebody might think something different but if you think to my football, you have to say that I am right. – The Telegraph"
We’re thrilled he is so understanding of differing opinions. He just needs to be careful that, some day down the road when results are not going Chelsea’s way, when we “think to his football” we don’t think “Wow, that guy was stubborn. I can’t believe we shipped four goals to [insert lowly opponent here] while N’Golo Kante was messing about near the forward line.”
The irony, of course, is N’Golo Kante stayed closer to Jorginho against Manchester City than he has in any game this season, and the Blues had a masterful performance. Sarri is almost parroting his most vacuous supporters. They deny Sarri did anything differently to pull off the win over City, as if reflexive rigidity is a positive attribute and a key to success.
When the football is fun, of course he will demand credit for his decisions. Let’s check back when neither the football nor the table is fun and see if we still have to say he is right.
3. Another chance for Premier League rotation
Chelsea do not have any top-half opponents until they visit Arsenal on January 19. With games coming every 3-4 days but no overly threatening opponents, Sarri will have plenty of opportunities to rotate his squad and test modifications to his lineup.
However, he may have taken the wrong lessons from recent games. He made his first significant rotations against Wolves, and the Blues lost. He went with his best XI against Manchester City and won. He used his most-rotated squad of the season against MOL Vidi, and drew in the most tedious way possible.
This recent run is more than enough for Maurizio Sarri to conclude that rotation is the tool of the devil. He is already inclined not to do it, and the last three games were another chance for him to proclaim “you have to say that I am right.”
The Telegraph had an article this week about how many players who went deep in the World Cup are still feeling lingering effects of fatigue and injury. And that is on the verge of the festive period. Every full-strength squad against a bottom-half team now could be a mortgage on a more important game against better opponents later in the season.
Hopefully Sarri attributes the performances at Wolves and MOL Vidi to the unfamiliarity of the XI with each other in a game situation, and recognize that the only way to correct that is more playing time. Preferably against opponents like those who lie ahead.