Maurizio Sarri on Arsenal loss: 'Chelsea players lack ferocity and are extremely difficult to motivate'
A furious Maurizio Sarri last night launched an astonishing attack on the mentality of his Chelsea players, saying they are “extremely difficult to motivate” after their abject 2-0 defeat by Arsenal.
The Chelsea head coach switched to his native Italian for his post-match press conference after saying that he wanted to “send a very clear message” to his players.
Sarri went on to say that Arsenal were far more mentally determined than Chelsea, adding that the players do not have enough “ferocity”.
“I have to say that I am extremely angry,” Sarri said. “Very angry indeed. This defeat was due to our mentality more than anything else. We played against a team which mentally was far more determined than we were. This is something I cannot accept.
“We had a similar issue in the league game at Tottenham Hotspur. We spoke a great deal about that loss and our approach at the time, and I spoke to the players, and I thought we had overcome this issue.
“But it appears we still seem to lack sufficient motivation. So I am really not happy. I would prefer 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 difficult to motivate.”
Sarri said he wants the players to talk openly about their difficulties, adding that he knows this squad will never be known for its “battling” qualities.
“It seems to me that, as a group of players, they are not particularly aggressive from a mental point of view,” Sarri said. “They do not have that ferocity in their mentality.”
Asked if he was in any way responsible for the defeat, which was secured thanks to first-half goals from Arsenal’s Alexandre Lacazette and Laurent Koscielny, Sarri said: “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 they were more determined. Tactics don't come into it.
“Don't get me wrong, we could have lost that game anyway, but we could have lost it for tactical reasons. But I think that we lost it because of our determination. But I couldn’t possibly say I am not responsible as well, in part at least, for the mental approach. That's something we have to share.”
