Maurizio Sarri wants hard work from Chelsea as 'crazy' pre-season ends with Community Shield defeat

Maurizio Sarri says Chelsea still have a lot of work to do with just one week before the new Premier League season as their Community Shield defeat to Manchester City continued what the Italian described as a "crazy" pre-season.

The new man at Stamford Bridge watched on at Wembley as Pep Guardiola’s champions showed the gulf he is tasked with closing, with Sergio Aguero striking in either half to ensure a more than comfortable 2-0 win for City.

Sarri has had just three weeks to work with his new players, and is yet to meet six of them due to extended holiday following the World Cup.

Those three weeks have seen the squad take in Australia, southern France and Ireland before heading back in London, and they will face Lyon in one more friendly before beginning their season at Huddersfield next weekend - and Sarri knows there is much to be done.

“In this moment there is a little difference, maybe not little, between us and City,” the former Napoli boss said.

“About the performance, I think in the first half not too bad in the second half there was a big difference from the physical point of view.

“So we have to work,” he added. “Our pre-season until now has been a bit crazy I think and so we have to work.”

Sarri and Guardiola have often spoken in glowing terms about one another, with the latter always quick to praise the Italian’s style of play.

However, while there were more signs of life in this Chelsea performance than their outing at the Etihad under Antonio Conte in March, Sarri admits they are a long way off reflecting his philosophy.

“Some [of my style is in the team] I think, but not too much,” he said.

“In this moment I think we have the idea to press but sometimes we press in the right way, sometimes not.

“We have the idea to be in control of the match but today we were not in control of the match.

“So I think it is a long way, we have to work. It is not very easy in the next week we have a friendly again, and I prefer in this moment to be on the pitch with the players on for training.”