Chelsea let a dominant first half slip against Crystal Palace as Enzo Maresca’s side had to settle for a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge.
Building on his hat-trick last week at Wolves, Noni Madueke was central to a fast breakaway that led to Nicolas Jackson putting Chelsea in front. But the control the home side had in the first half was lost in the second, with Eberechi Eze equalising and the match becoming much more to and fro. Jackson then missed a great chance to win it in stoppage time.
As well as losing control, another concern for Maresca will be seeing Malo Gusto go off with an injury midway through the second half. What does that mean for his right-back options, with the summer transfer window now closed? The counter-attack that led to Chelsea’s goal came down that right side, as many of their best attacks do.
Deadline-day signing Jadon Sancho was presented to the supporters before kick-off after his loan move from Manchester United for the rest of the season. Will he, or fellow summer signing Pedro Neto, be able to add the creativity on the left that Chelsea are producing on the other wing?
Liam Twomey analyses Sunday’s action.
How did Chelsea lose control when so comfortable?
After 45 minutes, Chelsea had generated an expected goals (xG) value of 1.77 and conceded an expected goals against number of just 0.07. Their finishing might have been more ruthless against Wolves a week ago but in terms of overall balance, it had been the most convincing half of football yet under new coach Maresca.
Chelsea controlled possession against Palace in that first half and managed to avoid giving up any big chances despite not pressing particularly hard without the ball. Instead, their more passive mid-block drew the visitors further forward, leading directly to the lightning-quick transition attack initiated by a Levi Colwill interception and pass that yielded Jackson’s goal.
But that passivity without the ball got punished throughout pre-season and by Manchester City on the opening weekend of the Premier League, and manifested once more eight minutes after the break when Eze was granted far too much space just outside the penalty area to guide a curling shot through a crowd of stationary defenders and just inside Robert Sanchez’s far post.
From that point on, this became precisely the kind of open, chaotic game Maresca wants to avoid, with Palace rarely struggling to generate presentable shooting chances on their attacks.
The loss of Gusto and Maresca’s introductions of Joao Felix and Christopher Nkunku in his increasingly urgent search for a winning goal only unbalanced things further, even if Palace were camped in their own defensive third for most of the nine added minutes.
Chelsea were also undermined in their final surges forward by their talented attacking individuals performing like… well, individuals. That may improve as the chemistry gets better with more game time together but in the meantime, these were two more Premier League points dropped.
Who will give Chelsea a left flank to rival their right?
Midway through the first half, the TV cameras found deadline-day loan signing Sancho sitting in a Stamford Bridge executive box, talking animatedly with Chelsea co-owner Behdad Eghbali about the events unfolding on the pitch below.
There was certainly plenty of tactical food for thought relating to the wide areas — Sancho’s particular area of expertise. Chelsea’s right flank, the engine of their best attacks last season when Mauricio Pochettino was the head coach, remains so under Maresca even if the structure looks a little different.
Madueke’s direct running injects some much-needed decisiveness into Chelsea’s slower passages of possession. Often supplying him from the right half-space, Cole Palmer remains the creative hub of the team in the final third. Gusto generally inverts into midfield from right-back, but his occasional overlapping or underlapping runs must also be accounted for.
Welcome to the Bridge, Jadon. 🏡#CFC | #CHECRY pic.twitter.com/Lz9640uVDe
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) September 1, 2024
It was no surprise Chelsea’s breakthrough, in the 25th minute, came from a slick combination between Madueke and Palmer in transition, and Palace consistently had to load their defensive resources towards that side of the pitch — which made Neto’s inability to get into the game from the left side all the more surprising.
Neto should have had space to attack Daniel Munoz in one-v-one situations but rarely tried to do so, and when he did, he was unable to conjure more than a couple of middling crosses. The recent £51.4million ($65m) signing from Wolves is still building fitness after a truncated pre-season, but he also looks more comfortable cutting infield onto his stronger left foot from the right side.
Mykhailo Mudryk’s ongoing struggles mean there is a clear opportunity for Sancho to provide more balance to Chelsea’s attack in his preferred position when the club season resumes in two weeks after the international break. Maresca will hope he does not have too long to wait to be able to call upon him.
How big a loss would Gusto be?
A deflated hush fell over Stamford Bridge the moment Gusto pulled up and then sank to the turf with what appeared to be a hamstring problem midway through the second half.
The collective dismay is not just about losing Gusto, who has been one of the biggest recruitment success stories of the Clearlake Capital/Todd Boehly era since officially arriving from French side Lyon in a deal worth €30million (£25.3m/$33.2m) in summer 2023. It is about the worrying void his injury absence creates in this Chelsea team, given the ongoing uncertainty surrounding Reece James.
James is not yet back training with the first team after suffering a hamstring setback last month, and Maresca sounded less than entirely convinced of his recovery timeframe when he said his club captain and midfielder Romeo Lavia should “hopefully” be available for selection again after the international break.
Two weeks without a game now buys Chelsea a little time to gain clarity and certainty about their right-back situation, but Maresca’s decisions against Palace underlined the problem he will have if neither Gusto nor James are available when the Premier League season resumes.
Unwilling to turn to central defender Axel Disasi as a makeshift right-back, the Italian instead dropped midfielder Enzo Fernandez into his back line and shifted Wesley Fofana across to the right of a back four — an experiment almost immediately undermined by a horribly mis-hit deep cross from the latter.
Right-back should be the strongest position in Chelsea’s squad, but Gusto’s injury highlights just what a precarious situation James’ fitness problems have created for Maresca there.
(Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
What did Enzo Maresca say?
We will bring you this after he has spoken at the post-match press conference.
What next for Chelsea?
Saturday, September 14: Bournemouth (A), Premier League, 8pm BST, 3pm ET
Recommended reading
(Top photo: Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images)
Read the full article here