Kid Callum gets the Sarri nod at last

MAURIZIO SARRI is finally ready to unleash Callum Hudson-Odoi for a first Premier League start as he tries to win over the Chelsea faithful. Sarri says the England forward is ‘probably’ going to start his first top-flight game at home to Brighton tonight. If Sarri does not name the 18-year-old in his starting XI against the Seagulls, the Italian says he will select him against West Ham on Monday night. Hudson-Odoi is in the strange position of having more starts for England than Chelsea, but Sarri said: ‘Callum is always in my mind. In my opinion, he is our future. Now he’s ready to play. Probably he will start tomorrow or the next match.’ Selecting Hudson-Odoi would go some way to appeasing disgruntled Chelsea supporters who have turned on Sarri in recent weeks. Trailing 1-0, irate fans vented their frustrations at the Italian during Sunday’s controversial 2-1 win at Cardiff. Another show of anger at Stamford Bridge tonight could even persuade the club to sack Sarri less than a year after he was appointed, despite Chelsea still being in the hunt for a top-four place and in the Europa League quarter-finals. But Sarri insists he needs time from the club and supporters to prove he is the man to lead Chelsea forward long-term. ‘We have to win matches,’ he said. ‘We have to try to win a trophy. At the moment we are not playing very well, we need to improve. ‘But it’s not easy, especially in the first season because we started to work in the middle of July. At the beginning of August, we played the first official match. We worked for a couple of weeks and then we started to play every three days. So it’s not easy for me to play my football.’ On why he thinks the fans have turned against him, Sarri added: ‘In the last seasons, they were used to winning. ‘So probably they thought it was normal to continue to win. But it’s not normal.’ Sarri is also set to recall Hazard and N’Golo Kante tonight after the duo were not picked in the starting XI in the Cardiff win, but Marcos Alonso is out with a hamstring strain.