SARRI READS RIOT ACT
Half his side grilled over dip
MAURIZIO SARRI will grill “four or five” of his players to try to sort out Chelsea’s Christmas wobble.
Sarri’s team were beaten at Stamford Bridge by Leicester on Saturday, their first home defeat of the season but their third in the last month.
They face a tricky Boxing Day trip to a Watford team buoyant after their victory at West Ham and now unbeaten in their last three games – at a ground where they crashed 4-1 in February in one of Chelsea’s worst defeats of last season, with Tiemoue Bakayoko sent off to boot.
An angry Sarri, who could have Alvaro Morata back tonight, said: “Now the most important thing is our reaction. Against Leicester, the reaction was not
right. I have an idea about what happened but I want confirmation – so I have to speak to my players.
“I want to speak with the group first of all. Then with three, four or five players.
“We have to do everything to avoid the same problem in the future. It is not easy.
“We will prepare a video, as we do for every match. And an individual video, with individual mistakes.
“Right now we have to think about us. Only about our team.”
Once again against Leicester, Chelsea’s lack of a goalscoring striker came back to haunt them.
Chelsea have had talks with Juventus about taking over striker Gonzalo Higuain’s loan spell at AC Milan, and the Argentinian is keen on the move after falling out with several of his team-mates at the San Siro.
It is a deal that could see unhappy Chelsea striker Morata switch to Milan on loan to replace Higuain
– but the move is also complicated by San Siro coach Gennaro Gattuso’s position being far from safe.
Chelsea are also interested in Lyon striker Nabil Fekir.
But Sarri insists it is a problem of not having the right mentality that is hurting his team.
After each of Chelsea’s previous two league defeats this season, Sarri has been critical of the way his team have reacted after conceding – and the same thing happened again against Leicester on Saturday.
Chelsea lost their shape and discipline after Jamie Vardy’s 51st-minute goal and 1-0 it remained to the Foxes.
Sarri said: “It’s clear that we did not lose because of the way we were playing. We were a bit unlucky.
“But the reaction after the goal was in the wrong direction. We had only to continue what we were doing. We were in full control of the match.
“We were dangerous without conceding anything to the opponent, so we had only to continue.”
Milan are also keen on Chelsea midfielder Cesc Fabregas – who is out of contract at the end of this season.