Sarri reveals that he is facing difficulties in motivating his players

The Blues currently sit at the fourth position, 13 points behind league leaders Liverpool.

Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea fell 2-0 to Unai Emery’s Arsenal at the Emirates recently and the Italian took to the press conference to slam his players’ mentality. Maurizio has accused his team of lacking hunger during games and admitted that he is finding it extremely difficult to motivate.

It must also be pointed out that yesterday’s press conference was the first instance of Sarri speaking in his native Italian and relying on an interpreter to translate for him, such was his outrage and frustration after losing the game and Chelsea’s lead over Arsenal and Manchester United in the points table has been cut to only two points.

“I have to say that I am extremely angry, very angry indeed. This defeat was due to our mentality more than anything else, our mental approach. We played against a team which, mentally, was far more determined than we were. And this is something I cannot accept. We had a similar issue in the league game at Tottenham (a game which Chelsea lost 3-1 in November). 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 not overcome this issue,” said Maurizio.

However, he went on to elaborate that his players need hunger and motivation to show character in important games.

“But it appears we still seem to lack sufficient motivation, being mentally solid and determined. So I’m not happy. I’m really not happy. I’d prefer to be in the changing room speaking to the players to talk about why we lost from a tactical point of view but the fact of the matter is it appears this group of players are extremely are difficult to motivate. When you see this kind of game, when one team is quite obviously more determined than the other, you can’t really talk about tactics. From a technical point of view, both teams are pretty much on the same level, but Arsenal were more determine. Tactics don’t come into it.”

Maurizio Sarri went on to complement Emery’s men on showing more intent all over the pitch and particularly being decisive in the final third. Chelsea, on the other hand did not have a shot on target until the 82nd minute and it came from full-back Marcos Alonso.

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“Their high level of determination was obvious throughout, particularly in both penalty areas. If you think about their determination and how clinical they were when they scored the goals, in defence we stood off a lot and we were not determined and not strong enough. Don’t get me wrong. We could have lost that game anyway, but we could have lost it for tactical reasons. We lost it because of our determination. I couldn’t possibly say I am not responsible as well, in in part at least, for the mental approach. That’s something we have to share.”

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“Today we didn’t play our own football. Our defending ended up with us running backwards rather than pressing high up the pitch. We are a team that should be playing one or two touches. Instead at some stages we were playing with seven or eight. This is the sort of thing I don’t want to happen. We are going to have to try and change that.”

Chelsea will face Tottenham Hostpur in the second leg of the Carabao Cup on Thursday.