Zola on Hudson-Odoi & Kante injuries, Chelsea’s poor defending and Sarri being ‘offended’ by Burnley
Gianfranco Zola stood in for head coach Maurizio Sarri at the post-match press conference after Chelsea’s 2-2 draw at home to Burnley. Here’s a rundown of what the Blues assistant boss said.
On why Sarri did not attend
“The reason is that he’s very frustrated, so he prefers not to come here.
“He’s been sent off. I think he’s been offended as well. So he didn’t feel it was the right thing to come here and talk to you.
“Apologies for that from him, but here I am. Sorry, I know that you (the media) wanted him, but you can understand that he is frustrated about the game and frustrated because he’s been sent off.”
On why Sarri was ‘offended’
“I think he’s been told something from their bench. Don’t ask me exactly what, because I don’t want to go down that line. We’ll see what we can do about that.
“It’s a football game and it is normal that there is a lot of passion in it. We wanted to win, they didn’t want to lose, and it’s normal to have tension.
“I think there will be a follow (up) to that. Maurizio felt very unhappy about it.
“We understand it’s a football game and it’s heated. You say words because of the adrenaline, but he wasn’t particularly happy about it.”
On Sarri being sent off by referee Kevin Friend
“Maurizio was sent off while he was just trying to help Kevin. He went down there just to tell our players just to get into position and not to do anything (else).
“He was trying to help Kevin and Kevin misinterpreted it and sent him off. He is very unhappy about that. We are very unhappy about it.”
On Chelsea’s top-four chances
“Certainly with three points it would have been a different story, but we still have gained a point on the other teams and we’re not going to give up until the end.
“We tried everything we could on the pitch to win the game. It wasn’t easy. We were frustrated in the second half.
“We tried everything. It’s not like we didn’t play. We created chances but it’s not easy to score.
“Maybe we should have done more in the second half in their box – we should have been more effective, more precise.
“But the desire to win was there until the end and there was there was a lot of quality, especially in the first half.
“Against a team like Burnley, when they defend in the last 20 metres, is not easy. We tried but it’s not easy.”
On Burnley’s tactics
“They didn’t play enough. They were wasting time too much. We felt like five minutes (of injury time) weren’t enough to compensate for all the wasting of time. But from our point of view we tried everything we could.”
On whether Burnley deserve any credit
“Burnley played their own game. They did what they had to do. We are not very happy because we felt like five minutes (injury time) wasn’t enough. We are very disappointed about that.”
On Callum Hudson-Odoi’s injury
“It’s not an easy one. I think it’s a serious injury. It’s on his Achilles tendon.
“I cannot tell you the full extent of it. I haven’t been told if it’s ruptured. I think he will have to have an examination. But it’s not looking good.”
On N’Golo Kante’s injury
“He went down and as he went down he fell on the foot of a player, so he just had an intrusion in his ribs and he couldn’t breathe properly and that’s why he came off. He will be alright. It’s not anything serious.”
On Chelsea’s poor defending at set pieces
“We knew that (Burnley were good at set plays) and we prepared well about that. That’s where the big disappointment came, because we knew it was one of the most probable ways they could hurt us.
“We had opportunities to overcame that anyway but we couldn’t take our chances unfortunately.”
