Sarri Era Begins: Ominous Sign For Other Teams As Chelsea Start Off With A Bang

Chelsea cruised to a 3-0 victory over Huddersfield Town to begin their season on a positive note. Despite having rested Eden Hazard, the team gelled properly on the field and displayed glimpses of what one could expect from them under the tutelage of new manager Maurizio Sarri. N’golo Kante, Jorginho and Pedro scored for Chelsea as the Terriers could not open their scoring. Here, we discuss three talking points from the game:

Chelsea’s players step up:

One of the major concerning issues for Chelsea last season was the fact that many of their recent first-team players looked like a pale shadow of their former selves. However, a managerial change seems to have brought an improvement as players like Willian, Pedro, Ross Barkley, Alvaro Morata and David Luiz delivered satisfactory to good performances.

These are the same players who severely underperformed Antonio Conte, and were dropped from the starting XI at some point last season. Willian and Pedro looked re-energized, as Luiz was at his exuberant best against Huddersfield Town. Maybe, a change in the demeanour of managers or a significant difference in tactics seems to have benefited the players. Anyways, such changes would only reap positive rewards for the team.

Huddersfield haven’t picked up from last season:

David Wagner’s men were lambasted for being way too defensive last season around, as their safety-first approach did not go down well with many football observants. However, they were expected to upgrade their style to a more balanced nature of play this time around, but that has not transpired yet. Their attacking pattern is either too clustered, or quite predictable, as the opposition seems ready to clear out the crosses sent into the box.

Their midfield passing lacked urgency, and Chelsea outdid the Terriers in almost every aspect of the game. The only area of the play that attracts goals for Huddersfield is through the flanks, and hence that is something which could be easily figured out by other opponents who take advantage of this tactic by narrowing down their backline to outnumber their opponents waiting for the crosses inside the box. Otherwise, the Terriers were dire and looked somewhat confused while carrying the ball higher up on the field.

Sarri’s tactics would take time to be implemented:

Chelsea looked promising in the initial stages of the match but they were unable to maintain the same energy or intensity on the field thereafter. Currently, the season is too quick to react at, but the early signs of Sarri’s ideology towards playing the game seem to be interesting. He has the required personnel with him to work with, and today was a decent indication of how the style of play has changed at Chelsea. The players focus more on short passes and Jorginho’s primary task is to release the wingers on the run with some outlandish passes.

The team has a destroyer in Kante, as the Frenchman looks to break attacks and then initiate Chelsea’s moves by driving the team ahead with him. However, Sarri’s high-press technique is something that the players would take time to get accustomed to. Winning the ball back from the position at advanced positions helps the team to create more goal-scoring chances, but Sarri would have to prepare his team and bring up their performances at the required level to keep doing this tiresome work at a consistent rate. It would be interesting to observe how long the players take to adapt to the new requirements of the manager.