After the game against Manchester City on Sunday, new Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri believes his team is still a work in progress and they’ve got a lot of work to do before their first against Huddersfield Town.

The Community Shield match at Wembley showed a shambolic display from Sarri’s men as they lost 2-0 through Sergio Aguero’s brace.

“In this moment there is a little difference – maybe not little! – between us and City,” Sarri said in his post match interview after Chelsea’s defeat in the Community Shield.

“In the first half, not too bad. In the second half there was a big difference from the physical point of view, I think. We need to work. Our pre-season until now has been a bit crazy, I think, so we have to work.

The London club were without Eden Hazard, N’golo Kante, Thibaut Courtois and Oliver Giroud as they took part in the later stages of the World Cup in Russia. The Italian blamed the fact that his keys players are yet to resume training which is affecting his preparation for the season.

“I arrived here three weeks ago and I’ve never seen six players, so it’s very difficult,” said Sarri. “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.

“I think it’s a long way, we have to work. It’s not very easy. 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.”

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