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The 2018-19 English domestic season got underway with the traditional curtain-raiser, the FA Community Shield at the Wembley Stadium. Premier League Champions Manchester City comfortably beat the FA Cup holders Chelsea 2-0 in a largely one-sided game. Veteran striker Sergio Aguero was the hero for Pep's Guardiola's side as he scored a brace.
The defending Champions put up a commanding performance and sent a stern warning to the league. While City showed why they finished with 100 points last season, it is visible why Chelsea were 30 points behind them.
#6 Sarri ball is going to take time
In truth, Manchester City were all over Chelsea on Sunday afternoon. Maurizio Sarri's side barely got a foothold in the game. But the Chelsea faithful would be naive to read too much into this game.
It must not be forgotten that Manchester City are in their 3rd year under Pep Guardiola and have registered themselves as one of the greatest Premier League sides ever in history books, while, on the other hand, Chelsea have only trained for three weeks under Maurizio Sarri.
It was evident at the Wembley Stadium that Chelsea is miles away from what the former Napoli gaffer wants them to be. But Chelsea fans and, more importantly, the board has to give him time and have patience. For the last six years, Chelsea has had drastically different managers to Maurizio Sarri in style and principles. Such a massive change does not happen overnight.
Even with all the quality Guardiola inherited and the financial backing, it took the former Barcelona coach a year to get the best of his team. Sarri neither has the same level of quality in place or been given as much money to spend so far.
In fact, Pep's first season in Manchester was hardly inspiring with embarrassing defeats to the likes of Leicester and Everton. Jurgen Klopp is another example of how it takes time for the manager to get his philosophy completely in place.
Its important for everyone around Chelsea to believe in the process. It will not be easy in the start, but if they stick with him, the rewards could be huge. Their opponents Manchester City showed today, what they can potentially become. One must remember in his first five games in charge of Napoli, Sarri's team only won one game.
#5 Chelsea need Recruitment
Maurizio Sarri is a great coach who worked wonders at his previous clubs but he is not a miracle worker. It is not rocket science to figure out that this current Chelsea side is lacking in quality.
They finished outside the top four and a momentous 30 points behind Manchester City last season. While Antonio Conte's tactics and demeanour was a major reason behind it, the quality of the side is not much better.
So far, Chelsea have only added one new signing to that side. While in other areas, the club might still be able to manage with what they have right now, the forward line needs major reinforcements.
At the moment, Alvaro Morata is not inspiring any confidence as the main man and both Willian and Pedro are emblems of inconsistency.
With talisman Eden Hazard himself not being a prolific goal scorer, one struggles to see where the goals are going to come from in this Chelsea side. The need for reinforcements in attacking position is a must for the club if they want to achieve anything credible this season.
#4 Morata fails to inspire confidence
Only 12 months ago, after missing out on Romelu Lukaku, Chelsea decided to spend a club record amount to secure the services of Alvaro Morata from Real Madrid. The Spaniard was given the burden of replacing Diego Costa.
The Atletico Madrid striker divided opinions with his behaviour but there has never been a debate about how good a player he was. The shoes to fill for Alvaro Morata were huge.
The Spaniard had a dream start to his Chelsea career scoring six goals in first six league games. However, it turned out to be a false start as he finished the season with only 11 goals in the league and 15 in all competitions.
A shocking stat for Chelsea fans was that since the turn of the year, Morata only scored three goals across all competitions. Remarkably through the whole season, there was not a single goal from his feet at Stamford Bridge for the former Juventus man.
Through some bitter experiences, Chelsea fans have learned the harms of writing off players too early. Hence, the fans have not yet given up on him and despite some interest from others club, as of now, Morata is still a Chelsea player. But the question arises whether Chelsea can trust him as their main man for yet another season.
Unfortunately, so far, Morata has not shown anything to earn the belief of the manager or fans. Except for 20 odd minutes against Inter Milan, this preseason, his performances have been terrible, to say the least. Either has he missed a truckload of chances or failed to have any sort of impact on the game.
While he recently gave an interview to tabloid Daily Mirror expressing his strong will to fight and prove himself in Chelsea colours, the fans of the West London outfit would want to see the fight on the pitch.
This is something that, not anyone can claim to have seen for him. At the moment, having Alvaro Morata as their number nine seems a huge risk for Chelsea ahead of the new season.
#3 Hazard and Kante cannot come back quickly enough
One must not forget that Chelsea were without six players for this encounter. Out of which were arguably their two best outfield players, Eden Hazard and N'Golo Kante. On the basis of what transpired at Wembley, Chelsea needs them back desperately and as soon as possible.
Throughout the pre-season, 17-year-old Callum Hudson-Odoi has been the brightest attacking player for Sarri's side. It is no secret as to how talented the U17 World Cup winner is. However, there is still a long way for him to go and the club cannot rely on him to solve their attacking issues.
Without Hazard, despite aggressive pressing and even more possession, Chelsea were devoid of quality or any incisiveness in the final third. Against teams of the quality that Manchester City possesses, sometimes you have to just rely on a player like him to produce a magical moment.
Hazard future has been a source of much speculation throughout the summer, if Chelsea were to lose him, it could be a fatal blow.
Also, N'Golo Kante's absence was felt more visibly and evidently. Whenever Chelsea lost the ball, Manchester City bypassed their midfield with ease. In both goals scored by Sergio Aguero, the gap between defence and midfield was huge.
While in the likes of Jorgino, Cesc Fabregas, and Ross Barkley, Chelsea possess players of brilliant quality on the ball, neither of them is adept at tracking back and winning the ball in midfield, something N'Golo Kante is an expert at. The inclusion of the Frenchman will go a long way in giving Chelsea right the balance in the middle of the park.
#2 David Luiz cannot be a starter
Probably the biggest transformation from Antonio Conte to Maurizio Sarri was going from three centre-backs to two. Hence, one of the most immediate tasks at hand for the Italian coach was to pick his new backline.
In the Community Shield, he chose to go with David Luiz and Antonio Rudiger. While Rudiger was one of the few bright spots for Chelsea last season, Luiz was completely outcasted by Antonio Conte after a reported feud and injury concerns.
However, Maurizio Sarri has given Luiz a chance to resurrect his Chelsea career. But at the Wembley stadium, all Chelsea fans saw was why Luiz must not be a starter in the upcoming season. One can understand why Luiz was chosen to be the first choice by Chelsea's new head coach.
Firstly, Luiz' ability on the ball is second to none, something that is very important for a centre-back in Sarri's system. Further, the current Chelsea team is short on leaders and Luiz is one of the few who can rally the troops.
However, the familiar problems were visible at Wembley on Sunday afternoon. It is well known that David Luiz is due a defensive brainfart and it happened multiple times in the Community Shield. Time and again, City's fantastic attacking talent exposed the Brazilian who either lost his marker or was out of position.
In David Luiz's career, these silly defensive mistakes have happened way too often for Maurizio Sarri to trust him as a first team regular, especially in a high line he likes to play.
On the bench waiting is Andreas Christensen, someone who has emerged from Chelsea's own academy and was the biggest beneficiary of Luiz's exile last season. Till February, he was by far Chelsea's best defender and impressed one and all.
However, few mistakes followed and ultimately Antonio Conte dropped him from his side. In some ways, it seemed that the young Dane was made a scapegoat as the time when the performance levels of the whole team had dropped and there were mistakes everywhere in defence.
It is extremely important that Maurizio Sarri gives Andreas Christensen his spot back in the team. As a defender, he is more reliable than Luiz and has a lot of scope for improvement. Chelsea fans saw plenty of solid performances from him during the first half of last season. On the ball, the 22-year-old is as good as anyone.
From the outside, he gives the impression to have been born to play in this system. Chelsea fans want their new manager to give academy players a chance, the first step is to give back Andreas Christensen his deserved spot back.
#1 Community Shield Curse
An interesting point of trivia for Chelsea fans is that since 2009, the club has never won the Community Shield. In the nine years since, the blues have played for it five times, having lost on each occasion.
Manchester City and Arsenal have beaten them twice to the plate, while the losing streak started against Manchester United in 2010. A question to ponder for Chelsea is whether this is just a coincidence or does it signal poor preparation at the start of a new season.
