Maurizio Sarri was appointed as the Chelsea manager during the summer, and the Italian has had a mixed season with ups and downs.

Sarri has brought a different philosophy to Stamford Bridge and he’s got the team playing possession football. Sarri reached fame in global football when he led Napoli to play Sarri-ball and fought with Juventus for the Italian Serie A title.

Chelsea started out playing Sarri-ball pretty well and the Blues were unbeaten from August till November when Chelsea suffered a 3-1 defeat to Tottenham.

Sarri has questioned the motivation of the Chelsea squad on two different occasions, after the defeats to Arsenal and the 4-0 loss to Bournemouth.

Speaking about the squad’s mentality, Sarri said: “At the moment they can react against a big team, when we play against a big team we can play with a big level of motivation.

“But in this match it was different. Suddenly after the first goal we were not able to play. I think it was a different situation. Of course about the mentality.

“Maybe we are not at the top of the table, but we cannot lose 4-0 to Bournemouth, I want to respect them. Maybe it is my fault that I am not able to motivate them.”

However, Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger doesn’t agree with the Italian’s assessment. Rudiger pointed to the win over Manchester City, with Chelsea the first to beat Pep Guardiola’s side in the Premier League this season.

Rudiger insists that Sarri was only being emotional with his assessment of the players lacking motivation.

Rudiger said: “He’s a very emotional coach. But you can’t put everything down to motivation.

“We have been there when it mattered. We were the first team to beat Manchester City after all. We must be tougher.

“By now, we have a lot of possession, but we need to get something dirty back in our game.”