Maurizio Sarri identifies where Chelsea went wrong against Man City and wants quick return to training

Chelsea head coach Maurizio Sarri is adamant his Blue stars faltered against Manchester City largely due to the fact that his midfield options lacked defensive qualities to fend off Man City’s attack.

The Blues were second best in every department at Wembley against Pep Guardiola’s side and eventually lost 2-0 in the thanks to a Sergio Aguero double.

Maurizio Sarri, throughout his preseason games has given hints he may start new signing Jorginho with Cesc Fabregas and Ross Barkley in midfield against Manchester City in the curtain raiser for the Premier League season, but that was to be his biggest mistake. Against the Citizens, Chelsea lacked steel in midfield and were easily overrun by their opponents.

None of the midfield trio had in them the superb tackling and intercepting brilliance that N’Golo Kante would have brought if he hadn’t been unavailable on his holidays. It’s at least good that Sarri has identified this, and that he plans to correct this in training:

“It’s difficult in this moment to play with Jorginho, Cesc [Fabregas] and Ross all together. But I like him. I think he will be a very useful player for us. In this moment we have the idea to press. Sometimes we press in the right way, sometimes no.

We have the idea to be in control of the match but today we were not in control of the match. It is a long way we have to work. It’s not very easy. In the next week we have a friendly match [against Lyon on Tuesday] and I prefer in this moment to be on the pitch with the players for training.”

Maurizio Sarri, Goal

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