Draw at Man United a potential turning point for Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri

CHELSEA FINALLY BREAK AWAY DUCK

To say Chelsea have struggled away from home this season is an understatement.

It wasn’t just the 13-1 aggregate score against top-six opposition going into this game; there was also the 2-0 loss to Everton and the embarrassing 4-0 loss to Bournemouth.

They may have gotten lucky by facing a United side that are completely out-of-sorts, and the Blues weren’t at their best themselves, but this may prove to be a big result for Sarri – not just because of what it does for his hopes of leading the side back into the top four.

It’s also his first point away from home against any of the rest of the big six as Chelsea manager.

Some may still not be convinced about the Italian as the man in charge at Stamford Bridge, but slowly, Sarri is building a team in his image. Sunday’s result could prove to be a turning point.

SARRI LOSING MUCH-MALIGNED RIGIDITY?

Given how crucial this result is for Sarri it’s ironic that it comes in a display that was far from vintage Sarriball.

This was a scrappy, ugly, low-quality game, with none of the fluidity that either team is capable of.

Chelsea’s early-season away losses against Tottenham and Arsenal were characterised by falling prey to counter-attacking football as the Blues failed to impose themselves on the opposition, struggling despite playing the possession football Sarri desires of them.

The less spoken of the 6-0 capitulation at Manchester City, the better, but it was telling that two weeks ago against Liverpool and again on Sunday, Chelsea actually saw less of the ball.

That’s unlikely to be a coincidence. If Sarri wanted Chelsea to dominate possession, that’s exactly what they’d do.

Which means that the Italian has lost some of the rigidity he’d been accused of by his many critics – a welcome sign.

HAZARD’S BIG-GAME FORM UNDER SCRUTINY AGAIN

Chelsea have finished their quota of top-six games this season, unless they advance to the Europa League final and meet Arsenal. And there is one glaring statistic that may be cause for concern.

In 14 appearances against United, City, Liverpool, Arsenal, and Tottenham this season across all competitions, Eden Hazard has managed three assists and three goals.

This was his sixth visit to Old Trafford, and he has yet to register an assist or a goal at United’s home ground. And though striker Gonzalo Higuain deserves his share of the blame for the lack of end product, Hazard had next to no impact on Sunday.

There’s no doubting Hazard’s quality. But in a week where there was talk of him being among the biggest snubs in the PFA team of the year, the Belgian perhaps showed why enough of his colleagues didn’t vote for him.

Hazard’s big-game prowess has always been the easiest criticism to levy at the Chelsea star. Against United, he blew another chance to put that talk to bed.

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