Chelsea head into the international break on the back of a most delightful 2-1 victory over the defending champions, with Estêvão’s 96th-minute winners sending everyone into raptures and inspiring manager
Enzo Maresca to add his name to the list of iconic runs down the touchline at Stamford Bridge. It’s not quite José against PSG, but maybe we’ll get there later.
Referee Anthony Taylor was fairly lenient with his cards throughout the game, but saw it fit to book the manager for his exuberance, earning him a sending-off. Maresca had also been booked earlier in the game for getting involved in some jawing between the benches. Maybe he just wanted to keep our red card-streak alive (four in our last five games in all competitions, including three straight).
In Maresca’s stead, assistant manager and former Chelsea player Willy Caballero took the post-match duties, and he relayed a message full of praise for the players from the boss.
“[Maresca] was so happy after the game. [He] wanted me to praise the players because of the effort that they’ve done today. We believe that we deserve the victory after the chances that we created and how we played. Thanks to football and thanks for the effort of the players.
“[For the last] few weeks […] we’ve been holding our emotions because the last couple of games we’ve been playing well, but we finished a few games with 10 players and we couldn’t win the game. Today was really important. […] Today is a great day for us.”
Chelsea finished the game with four full backs in the backline after injuries to emergency starters Benoît Badiashile and Josh Acheampong left us with a grand total of zero center backs in the matchday squad. We now have two weeks to get a few of them fit and available. Reece James and Jorrel Hato did a fine job filling in, but that’s probably not an ideal solution in the long term.
“We finished with a back four that is not usual, four full-backs. The players did it really well, the players on the bench were ready to go and ready to play. They did a really good effort, they played in different positions. They didn’t ask for a question, they just went inside the pitch and they did it fantastic.”
-Willy Caballero; source: Football.London
But despite all the injuries, Chelsea also finished the game with bravery, impetus, and positive intentions. We didn’t try to hunker down and hold on for a point after Liverpool equalized. Maybe if he had more defensive options on the bench left, it would’ve been different, but this time Maresca made a bold tripe-sub with 15 minutes to go, adding three pairs of fresh legs into the attack. And that paid off brilliantly, with Mamardashvili forced into two excellent diving saves, Enzo hitting the post, and then Estêvão winning it at the end with his first ever Chelsea goal! Amazing, amazing.
It’s been a frustrating start to the season after the highs of the summer: a massive reality check after the Club World Cup, if you will. But these two wins this week should bring back some of those vibes and restore a bit of belief as we head into the meaty part of the season.
