Wembley calamity will not be repeated, says Sarri
MAURIZIO SARRI looked at his players as they sat distraught in their Wembley dressing room after the 3-1 November drubbing by Tottenham in the league and realised they had been “destroyed”.
Chelsea return tonight to the site of their worst moment of the season so far as they face bitter rivals Spurs in the first leg of the semi-final of the Carabao Cup – and this time the Italian has pledged he and his team will be ready. Sarri, who celebrates his 60th birthday on Thursday, said he had not realised how raw the rivalry was between the two sides before that dismal evening, when Mauricio Pochettino’s team inflicted a first competitive defeat of the season after an 18-game unbeaten run. He does now.
Chelsea were 2-0 down after a quarter of an hour and it could have been worse. It was the first setback for ‘Sarri-ball’, and arguably the Blues have still not fully recovered as two further league defeats followed.
“I saw my players in the dressing room after the match. They were destroyed,” said Sarri.
“I realised then that a match against Tottenham is a very important one for the club, for the fans and for the players.
“I didn’t know the situation. But now I know everything. I will be ready and I hope the same for my players.
“What I learned is that we need to approach the
match in another way. We lost that game in the first 15 minutes.
“The players needed to realise why it was so bad – and it was easy. The video of the first 15 minutes was clear. There was a big difference in mentality, aggression and determination. It was clear to me and to the players.
“It is useless to speak about tactics. We can speak about that only if we are at the same level of application and determination. The match was strange – it was just after the international break and probably we did not arrive with the right mentality. We need to play a different match. The result was our fault.
“Tottenham are a great team but we could have gone better prepared, especially in the first 20 minutes. We were out of the match mentally.”
Sarri will be without injured midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek tonight, and has Pedro, Olivier Giroud and Willian all facing late fitness tests. He admitted that both he and Pochettino – who have never won trophies as coaches – need to claim silverware soon.
But Sarri said: “Pochettino has been at Tottenham for four years and I have only been here for six months.
“The first season in England is very difficult for everybody – for Pochettino, for Jurgen Klopp, for Pep Guardiola. ”
Sarri has also told Callum Hudson-Odoi that moving to Bayern Munich would be a mistake. The German giants have made several offers for the 18-year-old Chelsea winger, who has yet to sign a new contract at Stamford Bridge, with the latest bid worth around £30 million.
Sarri insisted that academy product Hudson-Odoi, who starred in the 2-0 FA Cup third-round win over Nottingham Forest on Saturday, was now an important part of his squad, was ready for the big matches and would be better off staying. “I don’t think he should go to Germany because he is an English player,” said Sarri.
“He is very young and has a very great future here in England with the national team and with Chelsea. To stay here is better for him.
“He is ready for the big games. Of course sometimes he will be on the bench but that is the same as the others. I can start to consider him on the same level.”