London is Blue Dispatch #084

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In the pre-match conference for the Villa game, Enzo Maresca, for once, let himself be vulnerable. A month ago, he said, he went to bed at 11pm, 12am, and woke up at 4 or 5, unable to sleep any longer. “I started to think, it could be a good idea in the morning to arrive and pull all the people together in the building and share this message.” He requested Chelsea’s head of first team operations to organize a meeting of a 100-odd members from the first team, coaching staff and club employees. It was the inquest that Chelsea fans had been demanding after a run that has seen them win 3 of their last 12, tanking 13 points from winning positions since the 26^th of December. If there ever was a turning point that felt too scripted to be true, then this was it.

And it almost was. With a week to prepare after the abysmal showing against Brighton, Maresca arrived with a few handy adjustments. Pedro Neto started at false 9, a position he appeared at his best when deployed their for Wolves last season. Reece James moved into midfield from RB, offering a volatile right side with Cole Palmer and two fullbacks – Gusto and Reece both in their preferred crossing lanes. There was even an adjustment to accommodate the fallacies of the mythical Christopher Nkunku – who some say is a unicorn, while others say was always a horse with a carrot strapped to its forehead. Enzo Fernandez shifted to left wing to perform the harder task of tracking Matty Cash.

For a half, Villa had very few answers. Neto, finally freed from the confines of a single lane, appeared galvanized by his new found freedom, offering multiple quality runs in the opening 90 seconds. By the 9^th minute, his intelligent positioning saw him find a 1v1 with Maatsen, from where he created an easy tap in for Enzo Fernandez. It was all going to plan, until the script flipped back to the pages from last month.

Midway through the 2^nd half, the Blues continued their alarming tendency to drift into a tranquilized state after going ahead as if the half-time whistle would be the last one. The 2^nd half revealed familiar fractures – Nkunku drifting out of the game so much that he could well have been sitting in the stands, Malo Gusto continuing a baffling run of bad form and Moises Caicedo asked to be here, there, everywhere until he was left in a now familiar state of mania, collecting his 8^th yellow card of the season, staying on top of the PL charts for fouls committed. Cole Palmer, who you’d bet your house on to finish 99/100 times when released 1v1 with the goalkeeper, hesitated, and missed. The Blues had conceded 10 errors leading to goals this season before this game; an 11^th arrived courtesy Filip Jörgensen. Chelsea’s keepers have now committed as many errors leading to goals (6) as the entire squad did in the entirety of last season. None of these misfortunes can be solely attributed to Maresca.

There are, however, repeated offences that he cannot be absolved of. Yet again Maresca marinated in Nkunku’s lackluster trudging for 70+ minutes before deciding to throw on Jadon Sancho. Even in the dearth of solid evidence there is now a near inescapable certainty that Chelsea’s physical levels hit rock bottom in the last 30 minutes of games. Asensio’s winner now the 9^th goal conceded after the 75^th minute and the 22^nd conceded in the 2^nd halves of games. Only 14 have been conceded in the first 45.

With Bournemouth and Arsenal losing earlier today, the bigger picture does look delicately poised. We are 4 points away from 3^rd and 4 points away from 10^th, depending on if you’re either a glass half-full or half-empty type. Southampton up next is the perfect opportunity to whip up some confidence. Unfortunately, Southampton will be saying the same thing about this game. Anything less than a big win, and the public briefs from the ownership could change tune very quickly the way they did last season.

Maresca’s biggest headache, as of this moment, is figuring out how a family moves forward after a failed intervention. Because a month after his rallying cry, his troops seem to be spiralling deeper into the mire. 9 of the last 12 games are against Arsenal, Liverpool, Newcastle, Brentford, Spurs, Fulham, Everton, United & Forest. Emerging with a UECL title and a top 5 finish will take a hell of a run.