Chelsea progression under Sarri

Chelsea won on last night in the EFL Cup 3-2 against Derby. It was a tough game for them against their former star Frank Lampard who is now Derby manager. Even though they had to grind out the result and two of their goals were Derby own goals, they still went through to the quarter final stage of the cup. This is a good opportunity for Sarri to win his first piece of silverware as the Chelsea manager.

Chelsea had a comprehensive 0-4 win away at Burnley on the weekend. However, prior to that they drew three out of the four games they had in the Premier League. Hazard was injured on the weekend and in his absence Barkley and Willian put in standout performances. Barkley scored one and assisted two, while Willian scored one and was very influence in Chelsea’s build up play.

However, there are question marks over Chelsea’s style against the big teams. When watching Chelsea play, they seem very vulnerable down the left side. Alonso seems to still be used to their previous formation of 3-4-2-1, where he was playing a wing back. He constantly is going up for attacks and does not get back enough in time, which is how United exploited them when they played each other two weeks ago.

Another issue is the midfield. Sarri has a wide variety of players he can chose from; however, he uses Jorginho in the center defensive midfield in order to have all the buildup play go through him instead of Kante playing that position. Kante is playing a little further forward which is so far working out. However, personally I believe that it would work out better if Jorginho would be playing further up the field and Kante playing in a more defensive position where he has been so effective for the past two seasons for Chelsea.

Morata has been scoring a few goals in recent weeks, however, it is still not at the level that Chelsea require. It is not up to the standards of Diego Costa when they won the Premier League. Giroud has yet to score this season and this is an area that Chelsea will need to look at if it continues in the way it is.