Maurizio Sarri is living on borrowed time at Stamford Bridge following his side’s dismal departure from the FA Cup on Monday. Anything but a comprehensive victory over Swedish champions Malmo will act as just another nail in the coffin for the Italian, who theoretically now has three games to save his job and his footballing philosophy.
Ross Barkley and Olivier Giroud secured a hard-fought but vital victory on the Swedish south coast last week, and as such, Chelsea are firm favourites to progress to the next round of the competition.
This firm weight of expectation has done nothing to resolve the apathetic sentiment of Chelsea fans towards Sarri, and the juxtaposition of the fans lust for free-flowing attacking football versus Sarri’s tactical rigidity makes a happy medium all the more unlikely to come to fruition.
Irrespective of how poorly Chelsea performed against United, changes were always going to take place, especially with the Carabao Cup final against Manchester City on Sunday – a cup final in both the literal and psychological sense for the beleaguered Italian coach and his squad.
With this in mind, outcast academy prospects, Andreas Christensen and Callum Hudson-Odoi will be demanding of a starting berth, while Giroud will be looking to build on his impressive European campaign with another goal.
