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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport

Chelsea tactics: Maurizio Sarri plotting different route past Tottenham after Wembley humbling

Chelsea coach Maurizio Sarri admits there will be no point in changing his tactics against Tottenham if his players don't raise their game from their first meeting.

The Blues went unbeaten in the first three-and-a-half months of the season, but Spurs ended the streak in emphatic fashion at Wembley.

Mauricio Pochettino's side won 3-1 in the League, but the margin of victory could have been a lot bigger.

Tottenham were 2-0 up inside 16 minutes as Dele Alli negated the threat of Chelsea's playmaker Jorginho with ease.

But Sarri said: "First of all we need to approach the match in another way because we lost it in the first 15 minutes. They were more aggressive, more determined. We know very well if we approach it the same, there is no solution.

"I want to speak to them before about this or it is very useless to speak about tactics. Before tactics, we need the same level of determination.

"We have to change tactics as well I think. He (Pochettino) played with an offensive midfield behind two strikers, we needed to play more outside than inside because the spaces were outside."

Sarri has revealed that Willian (calf), Pedro (hamstring) and Olivier Giroud have all returned to training and could face Spurs.

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