Andriy Yarmolenko had a painful miss in front of goal which could have given Manuel Pellegrini's West Ham their statement win of the young Premier League season.
ESPN FC's Stevie Nicol sides with Maurizio Sarri about the Europa League's tough schedule and what Alvaro Morata must do to rediscover his goalscoring form.
LONDON - Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri refused to use Europa League fatigue as an excuse after his team was held to a goalless draw at West Ham.
Sarri had expressed his disapproval about having to return to Premier League action on Sunday in light of Chelsea's continental commitments; in Italy, teams participating in the Europa League have their following domestic fixtures moved to Monday evening.
"It's very difficult to play in the Europa League, but more difficult in March and April, not now," Sarri said. "I said only that I don't know why, in England, after an away match in the Europa League [we do not] play in the Premier League on the Monday night.
"In Italy, it's possible. Here I have to play 64 hours after a Europa League match. In this period, it's not a big problem. In April, maybe."
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An uninspired performance saw the Blues register just six shots on target at the London Stadium despite enjoying 71 percent possession against Manuel Pellegrini's side, who also missed several good chances to snatch an upset win.
Asked whether he considered the result to be one point gained or two points dropped, Sarri replied: "I don't know where you take the statistics of the match but, in my statistics, we had seven opportunities against their three. So I don't know.
"I knew that West Ham are a very good team. I don't know why they lost their first four matches in the league, but they are really a very good team. Maybe now [they are] in confidence after they won away against Everton.
"Maybe we could have done better in the last 25 minutes of the first half. Then, I think that we have played very well... well in the second half, generally, but very well in the last 25 minutes. It's impossible to win every match. So it's okay, one point, for today."
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Heading into this weekend as the Premier League's top scorer, Eden Hazard's performance was particularly disappointing. The Belgian failed to carry a consistent goal threat in his first match since being publicly challenged by Sarri to break the 40-goal barrier this season.
Sarri wants Hazard to focus his energies on the final third of the pitch. Asked if his star player had done so against West Ham, the Italian said: "Not in the first half. Better in the second half. But today it was very difficult to play inside.
"They were cutting out very well every pass for [Olivier] Giroud, so we needed two wingers, I think. Hazard in the last 25 minutes did very well, more on the right than the left, but it was very difficult for the striker and the two wingers."
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Sarri's frustrating afternoon was made worse by the loss of Antonio Rudiger to injury in the second half.
The Germany international joins Pedro Rodriguez on the sidelines, but the Chelsea head coach is hopeful of being able to call upon both when Liverpool visit Stamford Bridge in the Premier League on Saturday.
Before then the two sides will face off in the third round of the Carabao Cup at Anfield on Wednesday, and Sarri is not sure how much he will rotate his team.
"[Liverpool] have played yesterday and have one day's more rest than us," he said. "I don't know. I want to see the picture of the situation tomorrow morning during the training session. Now, really, I don't know. Maybe I will have to change 11 players, maybe only five. At this moment, I don't know."
Source: espn.co.uk