Chelsea are not as ruthless and clinical as they once were.
That’s the verdict of former Manchester United defender and Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville, who believes the Blues miss cutting-edge stars such as John Terry, Didier Drogba, Ricardo Carvalho and Diego Costa.
Maurizio Sarri suffered another setback in the Chelsea hot-seat yesterday.
Goals from Richarlison and Gylfi Sigurdsson saw them beaten 2-0 by Everton at Goodison Park, which could prove a huge blow in their bid to finish in the top four.
But Neville felt Sarri’s men could have been out of sight by half-time if they were more clinical.
“If they win, they go and score two goals in the first half, you say it’s a masterclass of a performance – they’ve controlled the game,” he said on his regular Sky Sports podcast.
“They lose and you start to think of them as being a little bit nice, a little bit passive.
“They’ve just not got that edge, something that makes that game in the first half two and three-nil.
“And Chelsea teams who have been brutal at times over this last 15 years since Roman Abramovich came in, some of the great Chelsea sides that have won leagues, they have been the most clinical and ruthless in both boxes.”
Neville believes they miss ruthless players like John Terry (left) and Didier Drogba.
He continued: “You think of [John] Terry and [Didier] Drogba and [Ricardo] Carvalho and that type of player that existed at this club. Diego Costa.
“They just lack that little bit of something and when you watch them today, it’s a team that’s evolving, it’s a team that’s obviously different than how it’s been in the past, they play a lot more passes, the centre-backs split to five yards off the touchline when the goalkeeper has the ball – it’s not something we’ve seen before.
“Yeah they’ve always played out from the back, they’ve also played direct, they’ve also been able to mix it, they’ve also been quite aggressive, physical. It’s a different team.
“It’ll be interesting at the end of the season, I think Sarri will get to the end of the season now which is a good thing, to see if they do believe in the style and they do believe in him.”
Sarri was baffled by his team’s second-half performance away at Everton.
Sarri was left baffled by his team’s second-half showing against the Toffees, insisting his side were ‘in trouble’.
“We played probably the best 45 minutes of the season and then suddenly at the beginning of the second half we stopped playing – I don’t know why,” he said. “We were in trouble.
“The situation was clear, it’s clear the problem is not a physical problem, if it was physical you would go down gradually, not in one second. It’s probably a mental block.
“I don’t know [what happened] and the players don’t know what happened in the second half. I cannot explain it.
“We played the best first half in the season and we could have scored four or five and then suddenly we stopped playing. It’s very strange and we stopped to defend and counter-attack.”