Furious Maurizio Sarri stormed out of Chelsea training on Tuesday – as David Luiz and Gonzalo Higuain squared up in Baku.
The Blues boss threw his cap to the ground in anger before kicking it for good measure, before racing down the tunnel.
Earlier in Tuesday’s training session, Higuain had gone in late on Luiz – with the pair going their separate ways, before storming back towards each other to exchange words.
The club claims the two incidents – the player row and Sarri’s tantrum – are unrelated, as BT Sport cameras caught all of the madness.
However, all the tension is unlikely to do any good ahead of Wednesday night’s monster game.
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Speaking on BT Sport, ex-Chelsea star Eidur Gudjohnsen claimed: “It does raise concerns. something must have gone on.
“You obviously have a group of players with big personalities and the last thing you need or want is for your players to get injured.
“Something has gotten the manager very angry in that situation as you can see.
“Something went on and sort of ruined the training session, that is what it looked like from here, anyway.
“You don’t want to see your players arguing, that’s for sure.
“You want a well-organised, short, sharp training session, 45, 50 minutes just reminding everyone of their tasks, getting the muscles ready, getting everyone hungry for tomorrow’s game.”
Fellow pundit Martin Keown added: “This [storming off] is where he is very wrong as a manager.
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“Because no-one knew there was anything really particularly wrong until he acts like that. He’s a little bit too emotional.
“I know he’s disappointed, he’s thinking, ‘Why aren’t they all getting along? We have a great occasion coming up.’
“He either loves them or he hates them and he has to be middle ground as the manager.
“If he’s going to continue in that job it’s going to take him to an early grave because those players will test you.
“Something has gone on, maybe David Luiz is being a bit immature, Higuain may have ran into him and he’s not happy.
“These things happen all the time. The manager has added to it by the way he’s behaved.
“That’s disappointing and that’s where Zola should come in and try to calm that one down – he’s done that for most of the season.
“But then when you go into a 5-a-side, maybe Higuain knows he’s not playing, he’s getting frustrated and so there are emotions involved.
“Chelsea are gunning for a piece of silverware in Sarri’s first season, having been under pressure from the boo-boys almost all season.”
Keown continued: “Players get nervous and tetchy before big games, there’s nothing wrong with that but there is something not right in that Chelsea group.
“The manager is the one above all else, his behaviour, it’s almost a habit.
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“In any family, the children start acting like the parents. It’s the same in a football club.
“Sarri could extinguish all those problems very very quickly and just get on with it.
“The throwing of the cap, the over-emotion, he’s under pressure as well, it leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
“But I’m sure they’ll be fine come tomorrow, there’s enough steady heads in there.”
