Gabriele Marcotti is one of our favourite pundits, and that’s especially true when it comes to speaking about Chelsea.
He’s based in West London and has been a regular at Stamford Bridge for many years, so despite being a “neutral” he has a really good perspective on the club and their progress through the seasons. He generally gives a more balanced view than some pundits who might watch Chelsea one week then a different team the next.
His take on the performance against Manchester United yesterday summed up the game nicely, and was very much aligned with how we felt:
“I thought Chelsea could have done better and won this game,” Marcotti said on his podcast.
“They made 11 changes in midweek, so presumably the 11 starters spent the whole week preparing specifically for this match. I expected them to have a bit more juice. It was a bit disappointing.”
We couldn’t have put it better. Not exactly bad, and you can understand why our manager Enzo Maresca is spinning the positives, but not great either.
Rested team much provide more output to justify Maresca’s rotations
The point about rests is well made. We’re only just getting used to this system of wholesale changes in midweek, and we’ve got to start expecting more from the weekend starters at this point. We were dumped out of the EFL Cup in midweek by Newcastle because we played our second string – but the first team didn’t really look to have benefitted much from a full 7 days off.
The second half should have seen us with another gear to go to, and while we did improve, there was never a part of the game where we really dominated offensively, despite a weak and nervy opposition.
What’s the point of gambling your future in the cups away if the rest isn’t going to produce tangible results?