From title talk in the Premier League to FOMO in the Champions League. If there was ever proof of how quickly the conversation around a club can change, Chelsea's mini-crisis has provided that.
Their 0-0 draw against Everton, 2-1 loss to Fulham and 2-0 defeat to Ipswich – all in the space of nine days – have changed perceptions. The consensus suggests it may have been folly to ever see them as challengers to established players in Liverpool and Arsenal, but the fact is that after the win over Brentford in mid-December they were just two points off the top.
Enzo Maresca will meet the media today before traveling to Crystal Palace tomorrow and the silver lining, if there is one, is that he will not be asked if they can be crowned champions this season. He didn't like those questions and looked back as if we were just as deluded as the people who claim Jesus Christ appeared on their toast.
Instead, he can expect to be questioned about the resurrection needed as they falter at half-time, and how much damage is being done to their chances of qualifying for the Champions League by flatlining in games they should be winning.
This is the first major test of Maresca's credentials since joining Chelsea. The 44-year-old Italian was able to distance himself from the club's other dramas: Enzo Fernandez's racism scandal in the summer, the rift between Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital, the Mykhailo Mudryk doping investigation, and so on. “My focus is on the pitch because that is the only thing I can control,” he has reminded us. But this? This is his territory.
This is tactics, this is motivation, and this is a challenge he must overcome if he doesn't want the “I told you so” traders to dust off their keyboards after the summer scrutiny of his appointment.
As they waited for Maresca to enter the press conference room after Chelsea's latest lackluster display, some local reporters from Ipswich brooded over what they had seen. In one, we went all the way back to the warm-up, where he said that of all the Premier League visitors turning up at Portman Road, he had not seen any team go through the motions as much as Chelsea.
Only Maresca's players will know if they handled that trip differently to others, as Christopher Nkunku produced stepovers, Noni Madueke performed keepie-uppies and so on. If the group indeed arrived in Ipswich expecting an easy evening, then that was their first mistake, as England's elite have no time for such a right.
Ipswich may have had six starters in their side who were with the club in League One – Christian Walton, Luke Woolfenden, Leif Davis, Sam Morsy, Wes Burns and Nathan Broadhead have all joined their manager Kieran McKenna on that journey – but they wanted the lake. Liam Delap is a striker admired internally at Chelsea, and the Englishman previously managed by Maresca in Manchester City's Elite Development Squad led the bullying from the very beginning.
They made Chelsea look like what they are: the youngest team in the Premier League working with a new head coach. Maresca has spent a significant portion of his season trying to turn his boys into men, occasionally kicking the butt of Madueke, Reece James and even Cole Palmer. So far he has delivered this public criticism from a position of strength, but if the team falls short of expectations, that seems a much riskier strategy.
Maresca must now show why Chelsea chose him over McKenna and Co this summer. The search for Mauricio Pochettino's successor saw seven criteria set out to assess their candidates, one of which was a 'desire to control matches with defensive stability'.
Yet a pattern emerged during the Christmas period. The Blues achieved their highest possession figures of the season – 75 percent at Everton and 76 percent at Ipswich – but failed to score in consecutive Premier League away games for the first time since February 2019.
Opponents appear increasingly content with the Blues having the ball, marking Palmer to limit his influence and believing they lack the required ruthlessness even if they do find a way through.
There is also growing optimism that Chelsea will give them a chance at some point in the 90 minutes, as was the case when Axel Disasi played the errant pass into his own defensive third of the pitch which led to Omari Hutchinson scoring against his old club. confirm Ipswich's first Premier League home win in 8,286 days.
Disasi was a centre-back playing at right-back, despite Josh Acheampong, Malo Gusto and James being on the substitutes' bench, as Maresca's team adjustments didn't work this time.
Maresca was satisfied with the performance. He has already reminded his players how many chances they created and that on another day they would have scored from several of them.
He will hope to no longer be a card-carrying member of the 'coulda, Woulda, Shoulda' club tomorrow when they travel to Palace, another side likely to let them control possession. The Blues had 63 percent when they faced the Eagles earlier this season, drawing 1-1 in another performance in which they were not nearly ruthless enough.
Maresca has been here before. Last season at Leicester he lost three games within two weeks to Bristol City, Millwall and Plymouth, each 1-0.
Guillem Balague, the Spanish football journalist who cheers on Maresca, reposted clips of those losses in which Leicester created big chances. He wrote at the time: “Considering that a coach prepares the team to take the ball from one end to the other, what else can a coach do here?”
In other words, he leads the horse to water, so don't blame him if he doesn't drink. Leicester supporters countered that Maresca was to blame for selecting the same old starters, not using his substitutes properly and making the same mistakes week in, week out with the strongest side in the Championship, as Albert Einstein's definition of madness was quoted.
Maresca has been accused of something similar at Chelsea, especially given his reluctance to make the most of his bench given the depth he has at his disposal. They are a side so strong that they have been able to field a B team in the Conference League and win all six of their outings by a combined score of 26-5.
A look back at the last four games shows that there was one substitute against Brentford, two against Everton, one against Fulham, and four were used at Ipswich, but only once did they find themselves 2-0 down. For example, questions are being asked about whether he trusts Joao Felix, and how much influence he had on Atlético Madrid's £45million summer purchase when academy graduate and fan favorite Conor Gallagher went the other way.
Maresca is struggling with injury problems, especially at the back. Mail Sport have confirmed that they are recalling Aaron Anselmino from his loan to Boca Juniors, with the 19-year-old Argentinian able to provide some defensive reinforcement. The January window is now also open, although Chelsea insiders insist they will not overreact by splashing the cash.
This is a strong side that Maresca is working with, regardless of the injuries, and one that should have taken more than a point from three games with Everton, Fulham and Ipswich.
It was after their latest loss that one of the club's many social media aggregators posted a survey asking its hundreds of thousands of followers if they would still compete in Europe's elite competition. This belief still exists among its adherents; 73 percent predict that this will be the case.
Maresca doesn't panic either. If you had offered him fourth position at this stage of the summer, he would have accepted it before you could complete the offer, and finishing fifth might even be enough to qualify for the Champions League next season.
The first team is expected to return for Palace, including goalkeeper Robert Sanchez over Filip Jorgensen, Jadon Sancho over Felix, Pedro Neto over Madueke and Nicolas Jackson over Nkunku.
Chelsea's last three wins at Selhurst Park have all been winners in the final seconds, but Maresca could do with a controlled victory this time to bring back the optimism of the first half of the season.
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