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Chelsea’s Croatian midfielder Mateo
Kovacic runs with the ball during the
English Premier League football match
between Arsenal and Chelsea at the
Emirates Stadium in London on January 19,
2019. Ben STANSALL / AFP
Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri labelled his
players mentally weak and “difficult to
motivate” after losing 2-0 at Arsenal in a
toothless performance on Saturday.
The Gunners blew the race for a top-four
Premier League finish wide open as first-
half goals from Alexandre Lacazette and
Laurent Koscielny closed Arsenal and
Manchester United, who beat Brighton
earlier in the day, to within three points of
Chelsea in fourth.
“I’m extremely angry, very angry indeed.
This defeat was due to our mentality more
than anything else, our mental approach.
We played against a team more determined
than we were and I can’t accept that,” said
Sarri, who chose to speak through a
translator in his native Italian to clearly
explain the scale of his frustration.
“The fact is it appears this group of players
is extremely difficult to motivate.”
On current form, Sarri’s men look likely to
be caught by Arsenal or United as a fourth
defeat in 11 league matches underlined the
need for the signing of Argentine striker
Gonzalo Higuain on loan from Juventus,
which is expected to be completed in the
coming days.
That run started with a 3-1 defeat at
Tottenham in November and Chelsea’s
performance was horribly reminiscent of
that night at Wembley.
“We had a similar issue in the league game
at Tottenham,” Sarri continued.
“We spoke a great deal about that loss and
our approach at the time, and I spoke to
the players, and I thought we’d overcome
this issue.
“But it appears we still have this issue and
we still seem to lack sufficient motivation
and being mentally solid and our
determination.”
Hazard makes limited impact
Chelsea enjoyed 64 percent possession, but
had just one shot on target to again
question Sarri’s decision to start without a
recognised striker with Eden Hazard’s
impact limited in a central role.
However, Sarri insisted it was his players’
attitude and not his system that was the
problem.
“I think when you see this kind of game,
when one team is more determined than
the other, you can’t really talk about
tactics,” he added.
“From a technical point of view both teams
are on the same level, but they were more
determined.
“Tactics don’t come into it. Their high level
of motivation was obvious throughout,
particularly in both penalty areas.”
By contrast, Arsenal boss Unai Emery’s
selection was vindicated as Mesut Ozil was
left on the bench for the full 90 minutes
and a switch to a 4-4-2 allowed Lacazette
and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to form a
potent partnership up front.
But Emery also lauded Arsenal’s greater
desire to bounce back from a disappointing
defeat by West Ham last weekend.
“We needed today to run more than them,”
said the Spaniard. “The first idea today we
were speaking (about) was we needed to
run to recover the ball quickly.
“If you play against one team who plays
with long balls it is hard to press, but their
structure is very clear and we worked to do
the pressing.”
Aubameyang should have opened the
scoring after just five minutes when
perfectly picked out by Lacazette’s low
cross, but dragged his shot wide.
Kepa Arrizabalaga then produced a brilliant
save to deny Koscielny from point-blank
range, but it counted for little as from the
resulting corner Arsenal took a deserved
lead.
Lacazette did well to stay on his feet
before smashing the ball past Kepa at his
near post, but Sarri was critical of the half-
hearted challenges from Pedro Rodriguez
and Marcos Alonso.
“If you think about their determination and
how clinical they were when they scored
the goals,” added Sarri.
“In defence we stood off a lot and we were
not determined and not strong enough,
particularly with the first goal.”
Chelsea were repeatedly caught out by
Arsenal’s well-worked set-pieces and paid
for it again, albeit in fortunate fashion for
the Gunners, six minutes before the break.
Koscielny mistimed his header, but the ball
bounced in off his shoulder for his first
goal since the Arsenal captain ruptured his
Achilles in May.
Chelsea could have got a foothold in the
game before half-time as David Luiz’s
header came back off the post.
But in keeping with so many of their
performances of late, Chelsea created little
thereafter despite dominating possession.
Sarri has to hope Higuain, who scored 38
goals when the pair first worked together
at Napoli in the 2015/16 season, is the
answer.