YEAR HIG OF THE Sarri-ball era can be relaunched with new target man Gonzalo as the focal point
CHELSEA 5 HUDDERSFIELD 0
GONZALO HIGUAIN did everything to suggest that Sarri-ball will be right up his street – and so will Eden Hazard.
He scored twice but, more importantly for his under-fire boss Maurizio Sarri, showed every indication that he is a man who can shoulder the burden at Stamford Bridge.
Higuain puffed out his chest, and took the expectation in his stride. In truth, he should have taken home the match ball.
Sarri commented on the blossoming of a potentiallyfruitful relationship between the loanee from Juventus and Belgian magician Hazard that should reap goals aplenty in the coming months.
But the bigger picture yesterday was that the Italian was far happier than when he departed the Vitality Stadium in midweek, having locked his players inside the dressingroom for 50 minutes following a 4-0 rout by Bournemouth.
He said: “Today, I saw my football. We started very well. We moved the ball very fast with good movement with and without it. We were dangerous every two minutes.
“We played for 90 minutes – and we defended for 90 minutes. We need consistency now.”
True, it was only the Premier League’s bottom club that the Blues put to the sword. And Higuain isn’t truly match fit.
But that should only raise the hopes of every Chelsea fan who has been crying out for an
A-lister ever since the schi sm between former boss Antonio Conte and Diego Costa became too wide to bridge.
Under Sarri, Higuain broke the Serie A goalscoring record at Napoli. All told, he has now bagged 38 goals in 37 matches for the Italian.
Equally as important, he takes up positions where Hazard can find him, although it was N’Golo Kante who was responsible for his two assists.
Higuain showed his first glimpse as the Terriers’ defence was breached in the 16th minute. His movement was timed beautifully for Kante to find him and his vicious shot inside the near post was too hot for Jonas Lossl.
On the stroke of the interval Cesar Azpilicueta’s run was tracked by Elias Kachunga. But a clumsy challenge, although outside the penalty area, was deemed inside it by referee Paul Tierney and Hazard made it 2-0 from the spot.
Midway through the second- half, t he Be l g i an collected a pass from Ross Barkley, rounded Lossl and slotted home the third. Moments later came the game’s outstanding action.
Hazard made tracks along the penalty area, played a pass infield for Kante to set up Higuain, whose thunderous 25-yard shot flew into the net via a deflection.
David Luiz’s header late on only compounded the Terriers’ misery.
Two weeks ago, Sarri questioned his players’
Chelsea scored five in the league for the first time since December 2017 v Stoke).
Huddersfield have failed to score in a league-high 13 Premier League games mentality after a defeat by Arsenal.
Since then, they have reached the
Carabao Cup f ina l defeating
Spurs but then came a cropper against the
Cherries.
He said:
“Today he players were rea l ly m o t iv a t ed .
They had to react.”
Huddersfield’s new boss Jan
Siewert who has suffered back- toback defeats in his first two games, said:
“We were willing. We have to feel we created some good moments.
“But you can’ t compare us to Chelsea. They were quite angry after the Bournemouth game.”