Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri will have been judged in many ways this season. But all he has left is whether he gets the needed results or not now.
How is a manager judged as successful or not? In the Premier League it varies but it largely comes down to the same criteria.
At Chelsea, the criteria includes results, style of play, and youth. Maurizio Sarri has run into a corner on the latter two. All that remains this season are results.
Sarri gained a lot of points for finally giving Callum Hudson-Odoi a Premier League start. And then he did it again and again. Sarri is not a fool. He saw the crowd’s reaction to him at Cardiff and saw the matches coming up and he gambled on Hudson-Odoi finally.
But Hudson-Odoi will not play again this season so that good will is no longer there. It was a travesty to see Hudson-Odoi go out injured and hear the diagnosis afterwards and Sarri will have be just as saddened by it as any fan.
It is too late into the season for style of play to influence anything. Some have watched this entire season and determined that the progress and play on the pitch has not been enough. Others have seen the same amount of Chelsea this season and stepped away believing the club is moving in the right direction.
But little can change in the remaining fixtures to change anyone’s mind. The table rarely lies and Chelsea is fighting for top four while hoping others help them. Europa League is still available, but the league requires others to do Sarri’s work for him.
That leaves results as the only thing Sarri still has control of. Chelsea is a club where top four should not be an option and with three match days left, the Blues should not be hoping other teams help them. But all Sarri and Chelsea can do it put themselves in the position to capitalize on the help of others.
Chelsea practically has to win out this season to stay in top four contention. They need to advance past Frankfurt in the Europa League and they need to show up well in the final regardless of who is on the other side.
Sarri will not be able to convince anyone of his style at this point and he cannot lean on the good will Hudson-Odoi brought him. All he has left is the very basis of his job: winning.
Whether winning out this season and lifting the Europa League will be enough for Chelsea fans to back Sarri remains to be seen. The season has been long and disheartening for many and it is hard to see how anything less than top four and the Europa League will change that. Even that may not be enough given Chelsea’s current predicaments.
United (on current form), Watford, Leicester, Frankfurt and either Valencia or Arsenal are all teams Chelsea can beat on their day. Sarri needs to ensure the Blues get the job done on the last criteria he still has control over.