Chelsea were thrashed 6-0 by Manchester City on Sunday to leave question marks over the future of Maurizio Sarri as head coach.
Here, Press Association Sport assesses the state of play at Stamford Bridge.
History repeating
Obvious flaws from the start
We fall to our first league defeat of the season…#TOTCHE pic.twitter.com/s8kIMTokLl
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) November 24, 2018
Chelsea lost Sarri’s first game in charge, August’s Community Shield with Manchester City, before embarking on an 18-match unbeaten run. While some waxed lyrical about Chelsea’s performances, the results papered over obvious flaws. Tottenham inflicted Chelsea’s first loss on November 24 and defeats to Wolves and Leicester followed before the turn of the year. A defeat of City on December 8 showed potential, but City did not take their chances that day. Chelsea have lost their last three away games in the Premier League – to Arsenal, Bournemouth and Manchester City – by an aggregate score of 12-0.
Maurizio’s motivational malaise
Sarri starts with a message to his players: ‘I’m extremely angry, very angry indeed. This defeat was due to our mentality. I can’t accept it. We had a similar issue against Tottenham in the league. It appears this group of players are extremely difficult to motivate.’ #ARSCHE
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) January 19, 2019
Sarri has repeatedly spoken of his frustration at inspiring his players. “This group of players are extremely difficult to motivate,” the 60-year-old said after the loss to Arsenal. He appears unaware of the impact of his public criticisms. Eden Hazard has almost single-handedly carried Chelsea at times this season, but has also been singled out by his boss. There was a long dressing-room inquest following the 4-0 loss at Bournemouth, but the response in a 5-0 win over Huddersfield was more about the standard of opposition than the improvement of Chelsea, as the subsequent loss at City showed.
Inflexible tactics
Reasons to be optimistic?
