Maurizio Sarri’s strange training sessions are causing some confusion – and even injuries – among the Chelsea squad, with some players growing concerned by how repetitive they are. The Blues gave a meek performance against Arsenal in 2-0 defeat at the Emirates on Saturday, having also lost at Wembley to Tottenham in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final. A visibly furious Sarri was seething afterwards, using a translator to ensure none of his message was lost in translation, and questioned the side’s motivation.
While there is no imminent danger of things unravelling at Stamford Bridge, The Evening Standard claims that players are not enjoying Sarri’s monotonous and odd sessions. If Chelsea’s performance against Arsenal looked disjointed, many of the players believe that is because the squad are divided up with the defenders on one pitch and the midfielders and forwards on another, training separately from each other.
Sarri also made the decision to train on matchdays when there is a late kick-off in the evening, and during one such session Alvaro Morata sustained a hamstring injury that ruled him out of the day’s match. With such massive fixture pile up to contend with, the extra drill in the morning – which makes the day even longer – is seen as unnecessary.
Sarri was furious after losing to Arsenal, saying: ‘I have to say that I am extremely angry because this defeat was about our mentality. They were far more determined than we were, I can’t accept that. ‘It was similar to Spurs, I spoke to the players and I thought it was solved. I want to talk about the tactics but it would appear that this group of players are very difficult to motivate.’
