It is regrettable for Chelsea that they will remain sponsor without a front-of-shirt for their 25th Premier League match of the season in Brighton on Friday evening. No bookmaker, airline, bank, nothing.
They are the only empty billboards under the elite of England and, fun or not, that continuous emptiness only adds ammunition to the choir that their team complains, is a running advertisement for poor planning instead.
They have nothing in the front, nor in sponsors and nor in strikers after the double Whammy of Nicolas Jackson and Marc Guiu who pick up muscular problems on a deadline day when Joao Felix was borrowed from AC Milan without additives.
It was a freak development that the club left without a single out-and-out striker, but one that has only increased the frustration of the fan since Christmas. Before they sang: “We have our Chelsea back.”
During their FA Cup loss in Brighton on Saturday, it was the name of Roman Abramovich who came from the Amex Stadium's Away End. For a trip to Goodison Park in December, Chelsea had won eight in a row in all competitions. Since then they have only been three victories in 10 – and they came across League Two Morecambe in the FA Cup and two teams in the bottom five of the Premier League.
With Jackson and Guiu now to the offside until April, it is just as much on Enzo Maresca as everyone to bring order to Chelsea's house by persuading more from everyone else.
From the FA Cup. From the Carabao Cup. As a fourth ending in the Premier League, the domestic priority is and that indeed makes the return trip from Friday evening to Brighton – larger than the initially seemed back when there was a title interview.
Chelsea is currently on the longest Windless Streak away from home in the Premier League with their last victory to arrive in Tottenham on December 8. That was when they had an average of 2.9 goals per game on the road, a statistics that has since fallen to 0.5 in the midst of a scoring malaise.
Cole Palmer is more the target than he, marked by man and twice as much polluted in 2024-25 as he was in 2023-24.
He did not score or helped in his last four games – his longest run since he had arrived in Chelsea from Manchester City for £ 42.5 million – but even then he forced their last two through pure will. They were his crosses that led to their own goals by Brighton's Bart Verbruggen and West Ham's Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
Palmer is still creating opportunities in the Premier League-32 since December 4, more than anyone else throughout Europe-but has not been converted by his teammates.
As a conductor, he would be forgiven because he occasionally feels like Andre Previn who works with Morecambe and Wise, and the 22-year-old Englishman started to show his frustrations on the field when his work is wasted.
This is the moment for others to step at Chelsea, not in the least those who are supposed to contribute from the wings. It is not the easiest task for Pedro Neto, Jadon Sancho and Co, with Maresca who was so averse to high and wide full backs that Ben Chilwell was blacklisted. He prefers them to turn to midfield, and that can leave his winger with more than one opponent to beat alone.
They work on improving their output, not only within Cobham but outside. For example, Noni Madueke has trained with an external skills coach in an attempt to stimulate his consistency, thereby repeating exercises in which the left feet enter the right side.
Chelsea could do with exercise that makes a perfect Friday evening, when they will start a weekend in which a victory on Brighton would guarantee that they will hold fourth position, for Manchester City versus Newcastle and a Bournemouth side that go to Southampton.
It is a test of Maresca's coaching references less than a week after he made a few angry with his word choice after their FA Cup exit at the Amex.
“If there is something good after a defeat, it is that we can concentrate on the Premier League and the Conference League,” he told us.
And he said it was not just once but twice in the course of a press conference that forced some to ask if Jose Mourinho, Antonio Conte of Thomas Tuchel – all -way winners – would have spoken such a cliché.
Blues bosses are dedicated to supporting Maresca, after he had transferred him a five-year contract with the option of a sixth, and that includes a plan to improve the team this summer.
A striker is high on the agenda, and such help cannot come fast enough, the injuries to Jackson and Guiu have emphasized a vulnerability that complicates their Champions League pursuit.
Until that time, however, Maresca needs Chelsea's Wingers to show their value of wide rather than they have a silver at the top, especially if they want to seduce the type of lucrative sponsorship agreement reserved for people in Europe Elite Competition.
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