‘My future? You will have to ask the club’

Maurizio Sarri admitted he was uncertain of his Chelsea future in the wake of his team’s worst defeat in 28 years.

Speaking to Italian television in the wake of the humiliation, Sarri even pointedly made reference to his lack of communication with the Stamford Bridge hierarchy.

“If the president [owner Roman Abramovich] calls, I’ll be happy, seeing as I never hear from him. To be honest, I don’t know what to expect,” said the Chelsea manager.

“Matches like this can leave a mark. It won’t be easy to get back on our feet after this.

“Football is also made of heavy defeats. At half-time, I told the lads that if we were able to react, we’d come back stronger than ever.”

Earlier, the 60-year-old spoke to the English press and confessed he had no feeling for whether he would see out his first season in English football. “I don’t know. You have to ask the club,” said Sarri when asked if he feared for his job. “I am worried about my team, I’m worried about the performance but my job is always at risk.”

The defeat, following so closely after a 4-0 loss at Bournemouth on his last away outing, has brought Sarri’s long-term future into sharp focus. However, the manager remained defiant when asked if his plan to introduce the style of football he made famous at Napoli was doomed to fail. “No, because today I didn’t see my football,” said Sarri.

“At the beginning of the season, it worked. Now we need to understand the reason why at the moment it isn’t working. We need to understand the reason it’s not easy. We played better away at first, now we play better at home.

“Something is changing, I’m not able to see the reason, but I have to work for this. My target is to play my football, not to change to another football.”

Sarri had accused his players of lacking motivation in last month’s defeat by Arsenal. Daily Telegraph columnist Jamie Carragher, speaking on Sky TV, called Chelsea’s players “cowards” although this time Sarri’s biggest issue was with stupidity, rather than commitment.

“No, I don’t think so,” said Sarri, when asked if players were unmotivated. “I think we started well and then conceded the goal after four minutes in a stupid way. We made a lot of mistakes against the wrong opponents, and we have to say they played fantastic football.”

Sarri, whose side slipped to sixth in the table, did not shake the hand of opposite number Pep Guardiola at full time but he insisted that no snub was intended.

He added: “I didn’t see him at the moment but of course I will go to say hello later as usual. It was by chance because I wanted to go to the dressing room and at the moment I didn’t see him. I have no problem with Pep.”