Chelsea
“we are in trouble” Sarri cries out: See what the Italian must do to solve his problems
Having seen what injury crises has done to Arsenal, Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri couldn’t help but admits his team are ‘in trouble’ after losing Olivier Giroud to injury.
Injuries have turned the Gunners to a team who can’t keep clean sheets in recent weeks , not even against Brighton. This is why Sarri couldn’t hide his feeling that calamity could be falling on his team.
The Frenchman has stretched off the field in their 1-0 victory against Crystal Palace on Sunday after a rash tackle from the Eagles defender James Tomkins.
The Blues now have six players, including Olivier Giroud, Cesc Fabregas, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Danny Drinkwater, Pedro and Callum Hudson-Odoi, in the recuperating room and none of them are likely to return back to action until next year.
It should be recalled that Pedro and Hudson-Odoi both suffered hamstring injury on Wednesday’s victory against Watford and they are expected to be out of action for at least four weeks.
Sarri revealed to reporters prior to today’s encounter that want-away midfielders Danny Drinkwater and Cesc Fabregas suffered training-ground injuries and they were left out of his squad list on Sunday.
According to the Italian manager, the former Arsenal and Barcelona midfielder suffered a neck injury and he won’t be back before their next game against Southampton on Wednesday the 2nd of January. He equally revealed that Ruben Loftus-Cheek is also out as a result of an injury.
INDEED! CHELSEA ARE In BIG TROUBLE
It’s the prayer of every manager that their players remain fit during the busy festive season as they will definitely need to shuffle their starting lineup.
Chelsea would play three games in 10 days, meaning Sarri has no option but to interchange his regular first-team during the period.
Now that the manager is battling injury crises at Stamford Bridge, he could be forced to turn to fringe players for inspiration throughout this hectic period.
Ross Barkley, Victor Moses (maybe), Alvaro Morata — who was dropped to the bench after lots of uninspiring performances — and Ethan Ampadu are likely to get the chance to feature in Sarri’s starting XI.
CAN FRINGE PLAYERS GRIND OUT RESULT FOR SARRI
The former Napoli manager will be hoping that his fringe players rise up to the occasion, though, it is very much unlikely.
Considering the fact that some of these players — Moses and Ampadu — haven’t been playing since the start of the season, they are definitely match-rusty and would require much time on the field of play to return back to shape.
No one can bet on Alvaro Morata to score goals or create chances, hence, the workload would be on Eden Hazard to score and also create many goalscoring chances.
Nonetheless, Sarri shouldn’t be sorry for himself nor his team, he needs to get some players who will serve as replacements for the injured players
