SARRI ‘WORRIED’ BY CHELSEA’S ‘MENTALITY’
Blues manager criticises players after Everton defeat
MAURIZIO Sarri admitted he is worried about his Chelsea team’s “mentality” after they fell to a 2-0 defeat at Everton that severely damages their hopes of a top-four finish in the Premier League.
Richarlison and Gylfi Sigurdsson, converting his own saved penalty, scored the second-half goals at Goodison Park on Sunday that halted Chelsea’s recent league improvements and marked Everton’s first win over ‘Big Six’ opposition in 26 games, a run dating back to Jan 2017.
But the goals followed a first half of utter Chelsea domination in which they somehow failed to beat Everton’s England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford and the subsequent collapse has clearly concerned the London club’s manager.
“I’m worried about our mentaling. ity,” said Sarri. “I think uation is clear.
“We played pr the best 45 of the then, at t nin I don’t know why.”
The Italian added: “We played really very well until the last minute of the first half and then suddenly very badly in the first minute of the second half.
“It’s very difficult for players to explain to me the change. Very difficult for me to explain to you the change, probably it is a mental block I think.”
Everton’s win denies Chelsea the chance to go level on points with Arsenal, who are one point behind third-placed arch-rivals Tottenham Hotspur.
“At the moment, it is our limit,” added Sarri. “I think because if we are able to play like in the first half, with consistency, I think we are in another position in the table but we have this problem.
“It is a big limit for is because we lost a similar match in Wolverhampton, today we lost so for us at the moment it’s a big limit.
“Today was really, really impork
Everton fans enjoying a bonus moment when former star Ross Barkley, who left the Liverpool club in controversial fashion, was substituted by Sarri to a chorus of boos.
“To be honest, I didn’t know those numbers before the match,” said Everton manager Marco Silva of his side’s long winless run against leading clubs in the Premier League.
“It’s not a normal thing for a club like us, not winning so many times against strong sides.
“But for our quality as a club how big we are as a club, it’s something that can’t happen again. It’s up to us to work together for it to be more normal for us to beat these strong sides.”
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, usually a regular watching from the stands at Stamford Bridge, has become an absent figure at games this season.
The 52-year-old owner has not attended a game this season after complications with his UK visa last year saw him stay in Russia.
He has owned Chelsea since 2003 and has won a host of trophies including the 2012 Champions League. But having fallen behind rivals in recent years, Abramovich will no doubt be unhappy at the current levels of performance.