It’s time for follow City’s
REPORTS
GIANFRANCO ZOLA says that Chelsea are determined to follow the lead of Pep Guardiola and Manchester City.
Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri is under massive pressure as he faces four games in 10 days that could decide his future at Stamford Bridge.
But Zola, his loyal No 2, believes Sarri and his idiosyncratic style should be given the time Guardiola was allowed at City, where the Spaniard won nothing in his first year in charge but claimed the Premier League and League Cup in spectacular style in his second season.
Zola said: “Two years ago, people were asking the same questions of Pep. Asking if he would keep playing from the back all the time. He said that was not in discussion and was part of his game, even in the difficult moments.
“Maybe he adapted. He has improved a lot, because he got his team defending better and pressing better, attacking better. He has adjusted something – but not the way he saw his football.
“You admire what Pep has done. Certainly he’s a good inspiration. But not everything comes together straight away.”
Guardiola did spend some £250million on new players to get it right at City, but asked whether Chelsea required similar investment Zola said: “I am just the assistant coach. I can’t say we’re going to buy this or that. We have players here who can do even more than what they’re doing, and we can go far as a team.” Tonight the under-fire Sarri tackles the first hurdle in a daunting spell, as he meets Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s resurgent Manchester United in the fifth round of the FA Cup.
Defeat could be a body blow to the former Napoli manager – who has been in the job only seven months – while a positive OLE GUNNAR SOLSKJAER insists Alexis Sanchez has the bottle to prove himself at Manchester United.
Sanchez has struggled to justify his £500,000-a-week wages since joining United from Arsenal, with the forward having scored just five times in 37 appearances.
The Chile star’s United career hit a new low in the 2-0 Champions League defeat by Paris Saint-Germain last Tuesday, with an abject second-half display after coming off the bench.
Sanchez has started only three of Solskjaer’s 12 games in charge and conceded he has fallen short of expectations at United, result would then put the onus on the second leg of a Europa League tie against Malmo on Thursday and the Carabao Cup final against City at Wembley three days later.
The 6-0 thrashing at the hands of Guardiola’s side last Sunday in the league left Chelsea outside the top four, having lost four of their last nine games in all competitions, and piled even more pressure on Sarri, whose refusal to budge from his style of football has come under attack.
The Italian has openly criticised players this season as things have unravelled after a good start to the campaign, labelling them hard to admitting “I would like to have brought more joy to the club”.
But with Anthony Martial and Jesse Lingard injured and out of tonight’s FA Cup fifth-round tie at Chelsea, Sanchez is in contention to start, despite his ongoing struggles and lack of confidence.
Against that backdrop, a summer exit looms large for Sanchez.
But caretaker manager Solskjaer has not lost faith in the 30-year-old and, making a motion of hitting a bottle with the palm of his hand, he said: “It’s like that bottle of