Neville Insists Chelsea “Must Live Through The Pain” And Stick By Sarri

Neville Insists Chelsea “Must Live Through The Pain” And Stick By Sarri

Former Manchester United full-back Gary Neville believes Chelsea must stick by manager Maurizio Sarri despite yesterday’s humbling 6-0 defeat to Manchester City.

The TV pundit believes it will take time for the Italian’s style of play to be implemented at the Blues, but it means having to endure a long adaptation period:

“If the ownership of the club really do want a higher quality of football then they’re going to have to live through the change.”

“Now’s not the time to go weak on that. Now what we’ll see in the next 24 to 48 hours whether Chelsea have the belief that they do want to follow through with it.”

“In the past, I agree, they’ve changed [Andre] Villas-Boas, they’ve changed [Luiz Felipe] Scolari. Are they going to stick with Sarri?”

“If they really want this type of football in the long term they’re going to have to maintain a position of the club and live through the pain and change.”

Historically, Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has not been patient with managers when things have started to go wrong.

Sarri’s side are just one point off the top four following the latest round of fixtures, but the club’s form has dipped alarmingly over the past couple of months or so.

The 4-0 defeat to Bournemouth was a shocking result, and while a 5-0 win over Huddersfield helped to ease the pressure, the thrashing by City will again leave question marks over the manager’s future.

The fact that Sarri couldn’t explain the team’s poor defensive display yesterday would have been a major concern to supporters.

The former Napoli head coach will need some very good results against Manchester United in the FA Cup and versus City in the Carabao Cup Final to get people back on side.

David Tully

David Tully

David has worked as a football reporter for the last fifteen years. Having started as an intern at Snack Media, he then went on to become a freelancer, working on various different sites. At the start of 2023, he took up his current role as content writer for National World's Football News Network.