Sarri credits Chelsea’s individual talent for win, but reveals ‘small regret’ over Higuain

In addition to speaking with English media after Chelsea’s 3-0 win over Huddersfield to begin his Premier League career on an excellent note, Maurizio Sarri also stopped by the microphones of Sky Italia for a brief chat. Here, in his native Italian, he was bit more explicit regarding Chelsea’s win as well as transfer activities.

“I was not completely satisfied, as we won today mainly due to individual talent rather than tactical organisation. It was an ugly game at times, physical and quite difficult too, but the lads emerged from it with great character.

“Some players arrived only a week or even three days ago, so our pre-season effectively begins now and we’ve got to hurry things.”

In his post-match press conference, he talked about the crucial month coming up, when Chelsea’s schedule is still relatively light (just the weekend games) and his training won’t be interrupted by either international breaks nor midweek Cup or European commitments. Hopefully that gives a chance for all the new signings and the newly returning (an highly important players) to get up to speed.

Speaking of new signings, Sarri also repeated what he said earlier this week, about being quite happy with the club’s transfer window, despite its late timing and developments. One thing stopped it from being perfect however. There is always

“Fundamentally, the club was very open, we signed a great goalkeeper to replace another great one. I thought it right not to hold Courtois against his will, we got someone young like Mateo Kovacic who is ready to explode and also Jorginho.”

“There are a few small regrets, but there always are once a transfer window closes.”

-Maurizio Sarri; source: Sky Italia via Football Italia

That last line was an answer to a question about Gonzalo Higuaín, who ended up going to AC Milan instead of Chelsea. Fortunately, Álvaro Morata played decently enough, especially in the second half, so there’s hopefully something we can build on for the matches ahead.

All in all, as good a start to the season as we could’ve hoped. The difficulty ramps up for next weekend’s home opener against Arsenal, so it’s time to work work work and get the team past pre-season mode and several steps closer to full Sarri-ball.