London is Blue Dispatch #086

Almost 14 years ago, Nicolas Anelka’s double saw Chelsea take all 3 points from Copenhagen in the 10/11 season in the Champions League. A repeat of that scoreline was well on the cards, before Chelsea Chelsea’d, before stumbling over the finish line as has become custom this season. Despite a dire run of 3 wins in 12, there was praise for Enzo Maresca’s willingness to experiment during an injury crisis. Against Copenhagen, it nearly backfired spectacularly.

The starting XI looked like an intern accidentally scrambled the team on an Excel sheet. Maresca’s profiling of players has been less than impressive all season round, but this match took the cake for being the most bizarre of all. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, who hasn’t been able to play one position right let alone two, started as a left-winger dropping to midfield. Malo Gusto, a right back, was holding width on the left. Shim Mheuka, the 17-year-old debutant, was asked to lead the forward line by himself with no service, while Tyrique George, electric on the left with a shot that has inspired multiple video comps, started on the right.

Maresca could not have got the forward line dynamics more wrong had he tried. The left wing was the Bermuda triangle – everything attempting to take flight mysteriously vanished without a trace. On the right, an increasingly lost Palmer drifted deeper and wider to receive the ball. With Tyrique holding the width out wide, Mheuka was left making runs off the shoulder, with no one to link up with. Maresca’s changes were equally uninspiring, moving Tyrique George to centerforward as Nkunku was asked to hold width. Dewsbury-Hall was moved to right wing after failing on the left. His boldest move of all, subbing his most defensively active midfielder for Enzo paid off with the winner though.

In the end, Chelsea managed 5 shots in this game, their lowest in a European game in any competition for at least a decade. The xG was a paltry 0.36, bested by a sliver by Copenhagen’s 0.38. The Danes also managed 2 big chances to the one from the Londoners.

If the plan was to save the gas tank for Leicester, then why did Maresca play a very injury-prone Reece James for the full 90 and Palmer for 72 minutes despite being 2-0 up until the 79^th minute? Very little about Maresca’s decisions today exuded confidence or coherence. Which is the same that can be said of those on the field, with another clean sheet thrown away in the 2^nd half after astonishingly poor set-piece defending left Copenhagen’s key aerial threat unmarked at the far post. There are still those familiar cracks which have been cello-taped over, and when the glue wears off they threaten to transform into fissures. While Copenhagen only gently scraped at these openings, Arsenal & Spurs will likely ram a boot in and snap them open.

On the bright side, young Tyrique George, continued to strive. There was a moment in the first half where he sprinted 60 yards to stay with his marker, winning the ball, a feat that inspired Trevoh Chalobah to come across and thump his back in acknowledgement. The 19-year-old set up Enzo Fernandez’s cracking finish to make it assists in back-to-back games; Mheuka’s debut was an uphill task from the beginning but it was wonderful to see another precocious talent from Cobham get a start in a key fixture.

Reece’s opener made it a first goal in European competition in 884 days, the last coming against AC Milan on the 6th of October, 2022. Benoit Badiashile also made his comeback after 16 games out, and with Wes Fofana and Romeo Lavia back on the grass, the Blues’ injury worries seem to be healing in time for the crucial run in. Up next, the Foxes, before another Battle of Stamford Bridge between the Danish and the English, 959 years after the first. Other UECL contenders Fiorentina and Legia Warsaw both lost while Betis drew. This European title is ours to throw away.