Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri revealed he is angry with his side’s performance in the 2-0 defeat to Arsenal on Saturday evening.
The Blues are now 13 points behind league leaders Liverpool, and just three points above the Gunners who are in fifth, level on points with Manchester United.
First-half goals from Alexandre Lacazette and Arsenal captain Lauren Koscielny were enough for Unai Emery’s side to see of the Blues, who failed to muster a shot on target until the 82nd minute of the game.
Marcos Alonso did strike the post at the end of the first half with a header from a corner, but Chelsea failed to threaten Arsenal, who deserved the three points.
And Blues boss Sarri revealed his frustrations after the game.
I’m really angry about the approach that we adopted today. You can find yourself in difficulties from time to time, but we need to react to those difficulties a lot better than we did today. It’s an approach we can’t really accept. It was the same in our game against Tottenham.
Sarri further criticised his side by claiming the players appear to find it difficult to motivate themselves for a big game against a rival.
We thought we’d overcome that problem, but it seems we really struggle to get ourselves up for these games at times. I don’t mind losing but I don’t like losing in this manner.
Chelsea’s players will have to find the determination Sarri claims they lack in the big games to overcome a 1-0 first-leg deficit when they host Tottenham in the second leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final next Thursday.
