My players are extremely difficult to motivate, says furious Sarri after loss
MAURIZIO SARRI has delivered scathing criticism of his Chelsea team following their 2-0 defeat to Arsenal and claims his players are ‘extremely difficult to motivate’.
First-half goals from Alexandre Lacazette and Laurent Koscielny inflicted a first Premier League defeat on Chelsea since December and means Sarri’s side have won only one of their last three league games.
For the first time this season, Sarri used a translator during his post-match interviews to make sure he got his emphatic message across. ‘I’m extremely angry, very angry indeed,’ said Sarri, who compared the performance to their first defeat of the season at Tottenham in November.
‘This defeat was due to our mentality. I can’t accept it.
‘We had a similar issue against Tottenham in the league.
‘It appears this group of players are extremely difficult for me to motivate.
‘From a technical point of view, both teams were on the same sort of level but they had a higher level of determination in both penalty areas so tactics don’t come into it.
‘I can’t possibly say I am not partly responsible for the defeat. We have to share it.’
In the build-up to the game, Sarri had accused his players of ‘superficiality’ after Chelsea had struggled to kill off Newcastle in the previous game — a tight 2-1 win at Stamford Bridge.
The defeat to Arsenal means the gap between fourth-placed Chelsea and Unai Emery’s Arsenal and Manchester United below them is now down to only three points.
‘This is not a team that is going to be well known for its battling qualities, but we need to become a team that is capable of adapting, possibly suffering for 10 or 15 minutes and then playing our own football,’ added Sarri.
‘We didn’t play our own football.’