Chelsea’s positive run of results came to an end today when they were beaten 2-1 at home by Sunderland.
An early lead proved useless when the home team conceded once to a long throw, then in the 93rd minute after some ridiculous defending.
Maresca admits Chelsea “weren’t good enough” in latest damaging defeat
In his press conference, Enzo Maresca admitted that his team weren’t up to it:
“I think in general we were not good enough. When you are not good enough in the Premier League, we know that the consequence can be the bad one, “the manager said.
“The second goal we conceded, I said already many times, when you are not able to win, it’s important that you don’t lose.”
Maresca ended up defending the season as a whole – which is not a promising sign at all.
“They told me this morning that before today’s game, we had exactly the same points as last year, after eight games. Dropping points today [makes it worse]… I think we are still in October. We need to improve many things and see where we are in March, April, May and then decide.”
Is having the same points as last season good progress? For a team that’s supposed to be improving rapidly as players and managers enter their second or third season, bigger steps were expected. Our fixtures through the first 8 matches of this season have been easier than those of a year ago too.
In other news…
Trevoh Chalobah was also asked to explain the defeat, and he really struggled to come up with anything, much like his manager.
It wasn’t just defensively that the Blues struggled – Joao Pedro and Marc Guiu were anonymous up top, raising major questions about our attacking system.
Because of the injury to Cole Palmer experiementing with CAM’s is a must. Estevao has shown he can play anywhere along that line and should be starting in that position.
A good manager, but not elite to win major trophies such as the Premier League or Champions League. Question is what do Chelsea want and if it’s those competitions then Maresca won’t win you them. However, since there isn’t really any elite manager available apart from Klopp, who likely won’t take that job on, Chelsea are stuck at the minute and will have to accept top 10 – 4th place finishes under this guy for the foreseable future.
The age balance of the team is non-existent. No player of the required level to introduce any leadership. Contrast where Arteta has got with building Arsenal