Maurizio Sarri has explained his anger over not being able to practice set-pieces led him to storm out of Chelsea‘s final training session ahead of the Europa League final.
The Chelsea boss angrily threw his hat and left training at the Olympic Stadium in Baku on Tuesday, leading to questions over why he was so upset.
With Gonzalo Higuain and David Luiz clashing at the end of a training match during the session, there was speculation that Sarri’s anger was over that confrontation.
Sarri though, has denied that was the case, instead saying he was happy to see that kind of competitiveness from his players
“I think you were not able to understand yesterday, because if my players are really aggressive in training, I am happy, not disappointed,” Sarri told BT Sport ahead of Wednesday’s match against Arsenal.
Instead, Sarri said his anger was due to his inability to practice set-pieces with cameras watching.
“I was disappointed because we wanted to try our solutions on set pieces, but after 50 minutes of training the cameras were there and so we were disappointed for the situation, not for the players,” the Italian said.
Speaking on BT Sport, Cesc Fabregas backed up his former manager’s version of events.
“I guarantee you this is the truth,” Fabregas, who began the season with Chelsea but moved to Monaco in January, said of Sarri’s explanation.
“He’s very superstitious. He loves to do the set-pieces, tactics, offensively, defensively, the day before a game.
“They didn’t allow him to do it because it was an open session.
“For sure they would have told him, that’s the weird thing about it, but the superstition is too much for him, he has to do it that way.”
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