SARRI ON WARPATH OVER STARS’ SPURS FLOP

MAURIZIO SARRI hauled his Chelsea team in for one-to-one meetings as he demanded answers over Saturday’s 3-1 defeat by Tottenham. In a damning verdict on the performance, he accused his players of lacking motivation, and said Spurs ‘destroyed’ his team at Wembley. He insisted that N’Golo Kante would continue to play in a more attacking midfield role and criticised the Frenchman’s display. Sarri also stated that he will not change Kante’s role after he was moved wider to make space for Jorginho in the centre of midfield. ‘I want to play a very technical player as a central midfielder — Jorginho or Fabregas,’ said Sarri. ‘I don’t want Kante in this position. Kante, in the last match, wanted to solve the match after the first 15 minutes but in the wrong way. He lost his position. He attacked the other box too much and I think this is not one of the characteristics of Kante, but it was only a reaction to the difficulties.’ Despite the defeat being the club’s first in 18 games, Sarri said he saw the result coming after a dip in performances and warned that the top four should be the club’s aim as Manchester City are a step ahead. ‘I saw the same problems in the matches before,’ he said. ‘If you go to the pitch with that approach and the opponents are very determined, like Tottenham were, the problem is bigger. ‘They were able to destroy us in 15 minutes. I have to think about everything because we played very badly.’ Sarri organised individual meetings on Monday in which he questioned his players about the performance.

CHELSEA are through. They will win the group if they avoid defeat tonight or Vidi do not beat BATE Borisov. ‘It’s very difficult for them to tell me why,’ he said. ‘I talked to them player by player, five or 10 minutes each.’ Striker Olivier Giroud added: ‘We understand the manager’s philosophy, how he wants us to play on the pitch. It’s just a mental problem. ’ Chelsea are now seven points behind City and Sarri conceded his team cannot keep up with Pep Guardiola’s side. He said: ‘The points average of City is more than 100. Our target is to be in the top four. We want to play in the Champions

Cold shoulder: Sarri (left) with Kante at training yesterday League. We can’t look at City. They are a step ahead.’ Sarri will rest Eden Hazard against PAOK Salonika tonight after he suffered an ankle injury against Spurs but the Belgian will face Fulham on Sunday.