Premier League 2018/19: SWOT Analysis of Chelsea

CHELSEA - Threats

Maurizio Sarri's appointment

Sarri's appointment could backfire on Chelsea

As stated earlier, Maurizio Sarri is a brilliantly tactical coach, and you know your style of play is exquisitely beautiful when it earns you the compliment of none other than Pep Guardiola.

However, beyond being a tactically astute coach and playing beautiful football, it takes a lot more than that to manage a top-level club, and this is where Maurizio Sarri is painfully deficient.

At 59 years, he is yet to win a major trophy in his managerial career, while his biggest achievements are gaining promotion to Serie A with Empoli, and guiding Napoli in a futile Serie A title challenge.

As impressive as his Napoli side was last season, they ultimately came up empty-handed, and while it might have been alright for a club the stature of Napoli to bask in the euphoria of hassling Juventus all the way in the Serie A race, there are markedly higher standards expected at the bigger clubs.

Chelsea is one of the biggest clubs in Europe, infamous for its rapid hiring and firing of coaches, and the club has had a winning mentality for the last 15 years, so challenging for titles without winning anything is not going to be good enough.

The Chelsea job is Sarri's grandest till date, and it is a significant leap from his previous appointments. The requirements and wherewithal needed to successfully manage clubs of such mega sizes where politicking and business interests are almost as important as results on the field require experience to acquire, and most coaches untested at this level fail when thrust into managerial roles at the biggest clubs.

Sarri is replacing his compatriot in Antonio Conte, a serial winner who has won league titles in convincing fashions in two of Europe's best leagues, and while Sarri is tactically astute and aesthetically proficient, as Marcelo Bielsa knows, beautiful football and tactical brilliance don't always translate into trophies, and at a club like Chelsea, in the long run, trophies are all that matter.

Europa League football

Chelsea will compete in Thursday night Europa League football

Chelsea will find themselves playing Europa League football on Thursday nights next season as a result of their under-performance last year.

While it might represent a second chance back with Europe's elite as it did for Manchester United in 2016, or a shot at European glory as with Atletico Madrid last season or even The Blues themselves in 2013, the bottom line is that it is a scenario most of the big clubs would rather not find themselves in.

The reason is not far fetched. The Europa League represents the second-tier of European club competition, ditto second-tier European clubs, so while the mainstream European club heavyweights are playing against the Real Madrids and Barcelonas of this world on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, Chelsea would have Vardar Skopje and Botev Plovdiv for company on Thursdays.

No disrespect to any of the seasoned Europa League campaigners or the competition itself, but no big club wants to travel to the far reaches of the European continent to play against little-known players and clubs in a competition which fans have minuscule to no interest in.

The sheer number of clubs participating in the Europa League means it is an arduous competition to navigate in the first place, before adding the extreme distances covered to arrive at match venues.

Europa League matches take place on Thursdays (sometimes in places as far-flung as Kazakhstan and Macedonia) and league fixtures are played on Sundays. The players and coaches rarely have enough time to rest after their European exertions before resuming league duties.

Europa League competition takes a negative toll on league performances (as Manchester United found out), and Chelsea might find it difficult to successfully balance Europa League duties with their domestic targets.