When he finally sweeps away the clouds of misunderstanding which arose from Kepa Arrizabalaga’s refusal to be substituted at Wembley, Maurizio Sarri will recognise the features of a more familiar problem.
Sarri is back at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night, where the home crowd has been in mutinous mood during the last two games, to face Tottenham, the team responsible for damaging Chelsea’s confidence so badly in November.
And he will engage once again in his personal fight to convince everyone at the club – from the fans, through the dressing room to the board. That he has it all under control, that shutting out Manchester City and losing the Carabao Cup final only on penalties represents significant progress and may trigger consistent form.
That he remains the man for the job, has the respect of his players and can still conjure a way to qualify for the Champions League.
It didn’t seem that way on Sunday when the Kepa episode reached its farcical peak and a raging Sarri ripped open his tracksuit top, hurled a water bottle at his seat and stormed towards the tunnel.
But, on the eve of the Spurs game, the Chelsea manager claimed the issue had strengthened his authority and was threatening to drop the world’s most expensive goalkeeper. ‘Maybe yes, maybe no,’ said Sarri, when asked if he planned to start Kepa, signed last year for £72million from Athletic Bilbao. ‘I want to send a message to my group. The message could be Kepa is on the pitch, or Kepa is off the pitch.’
While keen to reinforce the authority which escaped him on the Wembley touchline, Sarri was eager to stress that no good would come from destroying a 24-year-old in whom Chelsea have invested so much.
‘He made a big mistake but we need to be tolerant,’ said the manager. ‘We don’t want to kill him.’
Kepa’s show of contrition and formal apology have helped restore calm. Sarri confirmed the keeper had apologised to his team-mates and to the coaching and technical staff on Monday.