It's fair to say Chelsea's preparations for the Europa League final have been far from ideal. From Reuben Loftus-Cheek getting injured in tiddlywinks over in America to Ngolo Kante's ever-reducing chances of lining out.
Eden Hazard is ready for the high road while Callum Hudson Odoi and Antonio Rudiger will both be on the sideline.
And then there's the eve-of-the-final training session. Normally, these occasions take place behind closed doors but Chelsea's final preparations went ahead in front of the world's media on Tuesday night.
And relations weren't too rosy in the blues camp.
It all began with a couple of niggly challenges between David Luiz and Gonzalo Higuain in the training match, the final part of the side's run out. The Brazilian and Argentine weren't best pleased with each other and took turns venting their frustrations.
Neither appeared willing to make up though, and their onlooking manager the 60-year-old Maurizio Sarri had seen enough.
By now renowned with the odd meltdown, the former Napoli coach made a beeline for the tunnel, booting his cap out in front of him along the way.
He didn't return for the end of the session with the mood clearly tetchy in the blues camp.
https://twitter.com/btsportfootball/status/1133452639893639168?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1133452639893639168&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.the42.ie%2Fmaurizio-sarri-chelsea-hat-4658705-May2019%2F
Martin Keown and co. criticised Sarri for his overreaction on BT Sports but while the disharmony doesn't look good, it's always said that a little bit of bite and tension does a team no harm.
The edge is where you want to be for big games like this one and these Chelsea players certainly look fairly wired for it.
Time will tell.
It’s been described as ‘The Voice’ for football A European football team has turned to launching a competition to sign an amateur footballer after being banned from making transfers. It’s the nightmare scenario for many clubs, being banned from signing any players which can be a death sentence for many clubs in modern football. While […]
They’ve enjoyed five campaigns in Europe’s most prestigious competition While not one of the competition’s heavy hitters, Champions League nights at St James park just make sense, and Newcastle have been enjoying a European resurgence in recent years. The Magpies face Barcelona in the second leg of their Champions League round of 16 tie, as […]
He responded almost immediately A Senegalese Premier League star has responded after his nation was stripped of the Afcon title they won at the start of the year. On Tuesday evening (17 March), Senegal was stripped of the Afcon trophy and Morocco was awarded the title by an appeal board of the governing body CAF. […]