Maurizio Sarri has confessed that his first month in charge of Chelsea has been "very difficult" due to the club's condensed pre-season schedule.
The Blues beat Perth Glory 1-0 Down Under in Sarri's first match at the helm, before jetting back to Europe to play out 1-1 draws with Inter Milan and Arsenal in Nice and Dublin respectively.
Chelsea were back in action on Sunday afternoon when suffering a 2-0 loss to Manchester City in the Community Shield, with Sarri having to make do without the likes of Eden Hazard, N'Golo Kante and Thibaut Courtois due to their World Cup exertions.
Having only been appointed as Antonio Conte's successor on July 13, the ex-Napoli boss admits that it may take some time before his players adapt to a new style of play.
"I arrived here three weeks ago and I've never seen six players, so it's very difficult," he told reporters at Wembley. "It depends on me, it depends on the players. I don't know.
"Sometimes the work has been very long, sometimes not. In Naples we were with difficulties for three to four matches - but the [pre-season] started at the beginning of July in Naples.
"Some ideas [were on show] but not too much in this moment. We have the idea to press but sometimes we press in 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.
"In the next week we have a friendly match [against Lyon on Tuesday] and I prefer in this moment to be on the pitch with the players only for training."
Chelsea begin their Premier League campaign with a trip to Huddersfield Town next weekend, before facing Arsenal at Stamford Bridge a week later.
Daniel Lewis
