The exit-bound Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri has pleaded with his players to be consistent after the 2-1 win against Malmo as he hangs on his jobs with reports indicating that former Real Madrid coach, Zinedine Zidane will take over.
Chelsea had lost four of their previous 10 games going into Thursday’s match, being beaten 4-0 at Bournemouth in the Premier League on 30 January and 2-0 at Arsenal 11 days earlier and what followed was a 6-0 humbling defeat against Manchester City in the Premier League on Sunday.
Sarri is now calling on his, seemingly demotivated players, to approach every match with the same level of application, determination and attention after the narrow win in Sweden.
“In the last period we’ve had the problem of up and down, up and down,” said Sarri.
“4-0, 5-0 to us, 6-0… so we need to have continuity and consistency.”
With the race for the top four hotting up every week, entry into next season’s Champions League is looking increasingly more tricky.
Reports indicate that Chelsea’s board are prepared to sack the Italian if and when it becomes apparent that the club will not qualify for the Champions League next season with the Blues’ boardroom said to be only left to decide whether they should make that move now or let Sarri see out the season.
“We need to have the right application. If you have a bad mental application in England you can lose three or four matches. We need to have consistency. It is not easy, but we have to try,” he added.
The Blues have a tough run of fixtures over the remainder of this month, starting with the FA Cup fifth-round tie with Manchester United at Stamford Bridge on Monday.
Then, after the return leg with Malmo, they face Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final on the 24th and Tottenham at home in the Premier League three days later.