It’s been a very odd couple of seasons for Chelsea, with Antonio Conte’s second season crumbling into a weird dust, and Maurizio Sarri’s success on the pitch papering over palpable discord and sometimes dissent in the stadium.
The turnaround to Frank Lampard’s good vibes legion has been immense since then, and even Pep Guardiola has taken note of it, as he reveals in an interview in the Guardian today.
“What Liverpool are doing is fantastic but Chelsea and Arsenal are also getting better. The level is rising all the time,” the excitable Catalan coach said.
It’s an interesting comment, given how much praise he showered on Maurizio Sarri last year.
He’s clearly a fan of his football, but thinks Chelsea have got rid of him and brought in a rookie and a bunch of untested players from the academy. An odd one.
Sometimes one feels like Pep will say whatever makes him popular in that particular room. Certainly he’s right to big up his rivals to stop his team getting complacent, but… Arsenal?!
Now that really is ridiculous.