Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca lamented his team’s lack of consistency while explaining why the Blues would not “be there” in the Premier League title race.
Maresca’s side were stung by a stoppage-time winner as Sunderland emerged from Stamford Bridge with a 2–1 win on Saturday. The newly promoted visitors fell behind to a fourth-minute Alejandro Garnacho opener but managed to limit their hosts thereafter.
As Chelsea’s beleaguered head coach would admit, there was “a lack of creativity.” Sunderland equalised in the first half at a long throw through Wilson Isidor before snatching all three points in the 93rd minute courtesy of Chemsdine Talbi’s first goal for the club.
FREE NEWSLETTER. New SI FC Newsletter Global Embed. Sign Up to Get Informed With SI FC. dark
It was a particularly frustrating result—and performance—given the good form Chelsea carried into Saturday’s contest. The west London outfit thumped Ajax 5–1 in a record-shattering Champions League victory on Wednesday, racking up their fourth straight win on the spin.
Yet, in what has become a worrying pattern, Chelsea failed to maintain that form. “If you want to be there, you need consistency,” Maresca sighed postgame. “Winning four in a row and then today’s [result], it shows that.
“If we can have that level [Maresca lifted his hand towards the ceiling] and this level [dropped the same palm towards the floor], probably it’s better to have something in between, to be always in the same way.”
Chelsea’s fluctuations in form are perhaps a consequence of their recruitment strategy. For all of the accolades spilling their way after the midweek win over Ajax, every toppled record was age-related. A painfully youthful squad is going to be naturally prone to peaks and troughs.
However, it was two of Chelsea’s oldest players who conspired to give away an entirely avoidable winner for Sunderland.
Trevoh Chalobah, 26, chased Brian Brobbey back into Chelsea’s half in the dying embers of Sunday’s contest. He was joined by 28-year-old Tosin Adarabioyo, the oldest player in Maresca’s squad, while Sunderland’s striker didn’t have another set of red and white stripes in sight.
While Tosin jockeyed Brobbey, Chalobah was oddly unmoved, not so much concerned with preventing a goal as getting a really clear view of it. The Dutch forward delayed long enough to lay the ball off for Talbi who had ample room to stroke it into the bottom corner.
“That can be an easy situation,” Maresca moaned. “We were two vs. one, the striker is facing his own goal. It’s an easy situation to defend. In that case we have to do better.”
Chelsea’s overall performance left their manager in a huff. “We were not good enough and in the Premier League the consequences can be bad,” he sighed. “When you’re not able to win it’s important that you don’t lose.”
