Enzo Maresca singled out Alejandro Garnacho and Pedro Neto as Chelsea’s best players in their disappointing defeat to Leeds on Wednesday night.
Chelsea were completely out of sorts as they slipped to a 3-1 defeat at Elland Road, and dropped to fourth in the Premier League.
The Blues weren’t at the races and found themselves 2-0 down at half time, and despite Neto pulling a goal back in the second half, they went on to concede again.
Enzo Maresca singles out two Chelsea players against Leeds
As expected Maresca made changes to the side which played so well against Arsenal, with Benoit Badiashile, Tosin Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Jamie Gittens and Liam Delap all handed starts.
Chelsea started the game poorly and found themselves 1-0 down after five minutes, and it seems they completely underestimated Leeds, and couldn’t deal with the atmosphere.
Maresca introduced Neto and Malo Gusto at half time, whilst Cole Palmer made his long awaited return to action later in the second half with Garnacho.
Palmer missed a chance he should have put away, but the changes weren’t enough to rescue a result for a Chelsea, although Maresca did praise Neto and Garnacho.
“I think tonight’s game there is no one that was at this level or the best level,” he told his post match press conference.
“I think all the teams, all the ones probably, Pedro [Neto], second half, Garna [Alejandro Garnacho], second half, they were our best players, because after we scored the goal we had two chances with Cole [Palmer] and with Joao [Pedro].
“But then the third goal I think killed the game.”
Chelsea face tough Bournemouth test next
Luckily Chelsea have a chance to right this defeat, but face a tough game against a struggling Bournemouth on Saturday.
The Blues will have to play significantly better than they did against Leeds if they want to get anything from the game, and Maresca will need to go with his strongest line-up.
Hopefully the Leeds defeat acts as a wake up call and Chelsea get themselves together, because a busy December has got off to the worst possible start.
