Sarri gets the reward for sticking to his guns as Blues open up title race
THAT great head of hair soaring high to meet the ball must warm the hearts of Chelsea fans. David Luiz was principally engaged in defensive responsibilities here and in those he was immense. As might be expected, no back four that faces Manchester City gets away with an easy afternoon.
Yet it was in the 78th minute that his shock of hair rose above a clutch of Manchester City defenders and you suspected the game was up for City, that the invincible season would elude them once again. The Brazilian would connect decisively and direct the ball past his compatriot Ederson and Chelsea would have a 2-0 lead which they would never look like ceding.
Luiz celebrated in the style to which we have become accustomed: exuberantly and passionately, sliding on his knees towards the corner flag, arms outstretched to embrace the Matthew Harding End. It was a glorious moment and not just for Luiz but for the man who rescued him from the Chelsea scrapheap.
Luiz would certainly not be at the club if Antonio Conte had stayed and even under Maurizio Sarri his future seemed unsure. And yet he has been a mainstay of Sarri’s attempt to transform Chelsea.
An attempt, it has to be said, that has accumulated a fair few doubters in recent weeks. A 17game unbeaten run had been somewhat exposed by defeats to Tottenham and Wolves.
Specifically, his key signing Jorginho, his on-field chief lieutenant, seemed unable to operate in his usual fashion when overwhelmed by Tottenham. N’Golo Kante seemed a better bet in front of the back four, yet Sarri was not for changing. Jorginho, who had followed the coach from Napoli, would maintain his role and Kante would retain responsibilities to get forward more.
Yet if Chelsea feared Sarri was turning into Felipe Luiz Scolari, then the Italian had an answer. The Brazilian coach had started well at Chelsea in 2008 before his distinctive South American style got somewhat found out in the hurly burly of the Premier League. And by February 2009 he was gone. Might Sarri be the same?
There is an element of quirkiness to his distinctive style of risktaking attacking football, developed in the non-league and lower reaches of Italian football, away from the elite game Pep Guardiola has inhabited.
He had insisted that he could only play one way, passing out from the back, pushing the defence up high and pressing the oppositions as vigorously as he could. Turned out that was not the whole truth.
Here he showed the crucial ability to adapt, sitting deep conceding possession and never once in the first half pressing as furiously as he normally does.
And how he was rewarded, not least in Kante’s performance, pretty much as perfect as he could be in that box-to-box role.
There was a period at the start of the second half where he repeatedly ran through City’s midfield. As the game waned, he was the man tidying up and nicking the ball in more familiar fashion. Yet he proved beyond doubt he is excellent at both and he deserved his goal.
As for Sarri, this was a special triumph. We all know that there are ways to cut through a Guardiola team. It is just that sometimes they will not give you the ball back, so it is difficult to demonstrate that fact.
His defeats are pretty rare, so tend to be mined for information. There was a famous one back here in 2012, when a Didier Drogba goal separated Chelsea and Guardiola’s Barcelona. That was engineered by Robert Di Matteo, a backs-tothe-wall performance where possession was deliberately conceded and the set-pieces exploited.
And while the first half had elements of that, with Cesar Azpilicueta, Antonio Rudiger and Luiz immense in defence, this was never quite as reductive.
It was more reminiscent of another of the significant Guardiola defeats, in 2010, when Jose Mourinho was still in fashion and coaching an Internazionale team far inferior to Barcelona.
Mourinho proved to be their nemesis by repeatedly hitting a long, cross-field ball switching the play from one wing to another very rapidly, which exposed Barca’s fullbacks in a Champions League semifinal. Inter won the first leg 3-1 which proved decisive in going on to win the trophy that year.
The fact is that Guardiola is so committed to attack that, assuming you can win the ball back, there are always vulnerabilities.
Chelsea’s first goal had elements of both those matches in it. Sarri’s men had been resolute in defence but suddenly swooped with a counter-attack, Luiz sending the ball out right, Pedro sent it back inside. City were scrambling and then Kante pounced
The measure of Chelsea’s victory was that prior to the match City seemed invincible. Now maybe we can even dream of a title race.