LONDON • With a six-point gap separating fourth-placed Chelsea and nearest challengers Arsenal, Maurizio Sarri has urged the club's hierarchy to reinforce their midfield in the January transfer window to consolidate their top-four place.
After breezing past Newcastle 2-1 in the English Premier League on Saturday, the Chelsea manager feels signings would keep up their push for the last automatic Champions League spot.
Despite having a star-studded squad, the Blues still lack depth in key positions with Sarri admitting he "needs an option for Jorginho".
He told reporters after the victory at Stamford Bridge: "As you have seen, today, Jorginho was in trouble (after collecting a yellow card) and on the bench, there wasn't a player for that position so I need a player.
"The club knows very well my opinion, I need the player there (but) it depends on the club decision."
The Italian reiterated his stance that Willian, who netted the 57th-minute winner against Rafael Benitez's men and has been linked with a big-money move to Barcelona, was going nowhere as he "is a fundamental player".
The Brazil forward took turns with Pedro, who opened the scoring for the home side in the ninth minute, to torment the Magpies, whose 40th-minute equaliser came from Ciaran Clark.
Despite the ongoing speculation, Willian, who has just 18 months left on his contract, remains a "very important player" with the ability to take the scoring load off top scorer Eden Hazard, given the woeful form of their main strikers Olivier Giroud and Alvaro Morata.
While Sarri claimed post-game "he did not know anything" about a possible extension to his deal, Willian, who scored just his fifth goal of the season and first in the league since October, insisted that he was paying no heed to the rumours, telling BT Sport his "future was here at Chelsea".
OUT OF MY HANDS
The club knows very well my opinion, I need the player there (but) it depends on the club decision.
MAURIZIO SARRI, Chelsea manager, who has urged the Premier League club to beef up their midfield.
In Italy, Gennaro Gattuso, Sarri's counterpart at AC Milan, similarly had to fend off the same line of questioning over Gonzalo Higuain, whom Chelsea are reportedly targeting to solve their issues up front.
The Argentina striker joined Milan on a season-long loan from Juventus in July with an option to make the deal permanent, but he has struggled to settle at the San Siro, scoring just eight goals in all competitions this term.
After again drawing a blank in their 2-0 Italian Cup win over Sampdoria on Saturday, Gattuso said the club were "holding on tightly to him" for now before conceding that he "did not know what will happen" as "when a player makes up his mind (to leave), it becomes hard to convince them otherwise".
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS
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The Portuguese attacking midfielder has also been linked to City's rivals Manchester United, but it is looking increasingly like the Sky Blue is winning the race for the player. The Sporting No. 8 has racked up an immense tally of 31 goals and 17 assists in 50 appearances this season, which has made him one of the hottest players in Europe.
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Now we know hat division we are in lets do the annual see who we would keep. A few assumptions. 1) AL has no significiant funds. 2) Loanees like Daniel Iversen we are unlikely to be able to afford, and probably wouldnt re-sign for us, but the sign or release is based on performance not likelihood
Keep up Synonyms, Keep up Antonyms | Thesaurus.com
That's even without All Blacks stars, and team leaders, Ioane and Tuipulotu who slip in their second mandatory rest for the campaign this week, and with veteran midfielder Sonny Bill Williams a
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With the midfielder departure from Stamford Bridge, Chelsea FC will make move to sign a new midfielder to replace him. The Blues have been linked with Leandro Paredes and Nicolo Barella as a possible replacement. And we believe they will step up with the transfer and get it completed before the end of the January transfer window.
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up
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