NO SWEAT FOR SARRI
Blues roll over Malmo, but it’s about to get tougher
Malmo 1 Chelsea 2
IF Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea can’t finish this particular job he really is in trouble.
Ross Barkley and Olivier Giroud’s goals within the hour had left the travelling Blues fans spending the second half begging Eden Hazard to stay.
Then Chelsea even did their best to stuff this one up by conceding late on against a half-fit Malmo side.
Good luck in the FA Cup on Monday against rejuvenated Manchester United. They will provide a much tougher test of Sarri’s shambolic defence and his job security.
Ditto Manchester City in the Carabao Cup Final a week on Sunday. Followed by Spurs in the Premier League. See what Hazard thinks then.
Malmo were exactly the kind of team you want to meet when you are having a nightmare. In the land of Ikea, Chelsea were able to finally able put together a performance away from home to ease the pressure on their boss.
When Malmo reflect on this game they will regret their bid to try and outplay a Chelsea side whose fragile first-half confidence had left them there for the taking.
A direct approach would have paid dividends. Instead Barkley ended up scoring because Uwe Rosler’s side showed off. A passing game works when you are confident in possession and able to make quick decisions. Malmo were neither.
It was all too easy for Barkley to shrug off his marker and poke Pedro’s cross beyond home keeper Jonas Dahlin.
Prior to kick-off Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck was again an eye-catching sight, applauding the Blues stars onto the pitch.
He’d been at the pre-match press conference too, 24 hours earlier, listening to Sarri’s words. Perhaps the Italian needs the presence of the club’s hierarchy to keep him in check after his comments last Sunday that he seldom sees owner Roman Abramovich.
After 15 seconds Malmo won a corner. Had they made the most of it with the Chelsea players still rubbing their eyes from the pre-match pyrotechnics in the north stand, they could have made life difficult for the visitors.
Instead, the side with the smallest wage bill in the Europa League allowed the club with the biggest to grow into the game. UEFA will look into the unsavoury scenes 10 minutes in as fans from both sides lobbed beer and other objects at each other.
As Malmo threw what they could at Chelsea, Rasmus Bengtsson, Anders Christensen and Amor Ingvi Trautsson missed chances.
But Chelsea scored again as Willian dribbled down the left, and centred for Giroud to tap in. Malmo sub Carlos Strandberg set up a tense finish after he held up the ball before playing in Christiansen to score.
Two pitch invaders sparked a security scare at the final whistle, one of them grabbing
Hazard before being dragged off.
But Chelsea kept
Malmo at arm’s length. Sarri (right) can breathe again.