Chelsea tightened their grip on fourth spot in the Premier League after a slender 2-1 win over Newcastle on Saturday evening.

The Blues capitalised on fifth-placed Arsenal’s slip up at West Ham, extending their lead over the Gunners to nine points.

Goals from Pedro and a sublime finish from Willian were enough to down the Magpies as Chelsea push on towards reclaiming a spot in the Champions League.

With Manchester United set to face third-place Tottenham on Sunday, Chelsea’s position could be even more secure by the end of the weekend.

However, having been right up there challenging with Liverpool and Manchester City heading into December, the Blues will be disappointed to have fallen away so drastically.

It has, however, exposed some weaknesses in Maurizio Sarri’s squad that need to be addressed if the Londoners plan to challenge for titles again.

While the players have struggled to adapt to “Sarri ball”, the manager himself could be to blame in some part as well.

The Italian continues to bizarrely play midfield maestro N’Golo Kante out of position, choosing instead to play Jorginho in the defensive midfield role.

Kante has proven himself to be streaks ahead of any other defensive midfielder in the league over the last few years, and so the fact that he is now being played in a wide position is very strange.

Sarri, however, is a stubborn chap and refuses to change his current system.

Gary Lineker calls out Maurizio Sarri

Speaking in the aftermath of Chelsea’s win over Newcastle, Sarri made another bizarre point, which was quickly called out by Gary Lineker.

“As you have seen Jorginho was in trouble, but I didn’t have a player for that position,” said Sarri.

Lineker was quick to respond on Twitter and was having none of what Sarri had to say.

Spot on, Gary.

You can sure there will be few Chelsea fans getting behind what the Match of the Day pundit has said.

Kante has proven world class quality in that position, and Sarri’s comments are simply quite silly.

Surely he has to concede and restore the World Cup winner back to his strongest position sometime soon?