Maurizio Sarri's possession play with Chelsea needs sharper definition

Seasoned watchers of Chelsea won't be shocked to see an 80:20 possession balance in a game. The main surprise is that they're on top of that equation.

The Blues, under Maurizio Sarri, have had a shift in ethos and it's taking some time to get used to – for fans, and players alike.

At St James' Park on Sunday, as Chelsea beat Newcastle 2-1, the division was actually 81:19. There were ballboys on the perimeter who could probably claim to have had a greater controlling influence over the game than the side in black and white.

Rafael Benitez is insistent he has been forced into that position by a lack of resources. Which, but for the proliferation of unlawful tackles which went unnoticed, is fair enough: there is more than one way to win a game of football. As Chelsea know.

Chelsea's success over the course of the last decade and a half has largely been built by coaches that did not favour the possession game. Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte frequently won games, and titles, with a minority of the share of play. The accusation often levelled at that type of football - that it is boring to watch - will carry little sway among those who have seen it result in trophy after trophy.

The last time Chelsea found themselves involved in a game where one side had over four fifths of possession, it wasn't them who had it. The 2012 Champions League semi-final, second leg, saw Barcelona absolutely dominate possession. Of course it counted for nothing, as Chelsea walked out of Camp Nou with a 2-2 draw, and a passport to the Munich final, thanks to an aggregate win.

And, if you saw Fernando Torres break free to score that second, in front of 90-odd thousand dismayed Catalans, then I defy you to claim the game lacked excitement.

All of which goes to prove something, which should have been pretty evident from Chelsea's most recent attempt at Sarri-ball: possession stats aren't fit for purpose in the way they are primarily used.

So often we hear pundits talk about a team dominating a game because they have dominated possession. At St James' Park, that landslide of possession meant really only one thing: Newcastle had refused to play open football.

Chelsea were given well over an hour to themselves, effectively as a training session. But, for the most part, they did very little with all that possession. There was, to coin a phrase, too much heft and not enough heave.

Chelsea were blunt at the front and, as Joselu's equaliser showed, slack at the back. Now, though, in procuring the services of Sarri they have decided to make a merit of possession. That's the way his sides play, and there's no changing that.

The recent history of the Premier League has not tended to favour that sort of football. Prior to Manchester City's triumph last season, no side had truly won the league with the ball since... Chelsea under Carlo Ancelotti in 2010. But, thanks to Pep Guardiola's City, it's coming back into fashion.

If you haven't worked it out by now, the point of this word-based Tiki-taka is that it matters not what your possession stats say at the end of a match. The only stat that matters is the number of goals each side has scored: at Newcastle on Sunday, Chelsea just edged that contest.

But if Sarri is to make possession football work, we are already starting to see some of the areas which will need improvement.

For now he's getting along just fine with a pale imitation of it. But, as he himself admits, there will be harder days out before he gets things totally right.