Chelsea flight chaos not to blame for performance at West Ham, says Maurizio Sarri

Maurizio Sarri rejected the idea that Chelsea's delayed return from their Europa League exploits played a part in his team dropping points against West Ham on Sunday.

Chelsea only returned from beating PAOK Salonika in the Europa League on Friday afternoon after the team's flight back to London the night before was cancelled due to bad weather.

The Blues went on to draw 0-0 away to West Ham on Sunday afternoon in what was a lethargic display from the visitors, who had come into the derby having won all their Premier League matches.

But Sarri refused to blame a European hangover for the two dropped points at the London Stadium, although he did admit playing on Monday night would have been better suited to Chelsea's schedule.

When asked if playing in the Europa League on Thursday night had any bearing on his team's performance in east London, Sarri told reporters: "I don't know. I don't think so.

"In this period of the season, I don't think so. After seven matches only. It's very difficult to play in the Europa League, but more difficult in March and April, not now.

"I said only that I don't know why, in England, after an away match in the Europa League to 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."

Sarri also expressed his displeasure at Chelsea's slow start to the London derby clash, adding: "I don't know where you take the statistics of the match but, in my statistics, we had seven opportunities against their three.

"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 in confidence after they won away against Everton. And so, 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 only in the last 25 minutes. So it's impossible to win every match. It's okay, one point, for today."