Over the past couple years, Chelsea have often embraced the “Game of Two Halves” cliché to a rather unhealthy degree, almost as a team identity. Whether under Mauricio Pochettino or Enzo Maresca, performance levels would swing wildly not only from game to game, but from half to half.
Of course, this may be endemic to a young team, any young team, and we’ve been trying to cure ourselves of this habit for a while. I guess we’re not quite done yet!
Yesterday’s 2-2 draw against Newcastle United was one
of the more stunning examples of this malaise. We were blown away from the opening seconds and fell behind 2-0 by the 20th minute. Though our play improved slightly as the half wore on (there was no way it could get worse), there was absolutely no sign of the turnaround to come — especially when Enzo Maresca made zero personnel changes at half time.
And yet, we stormed back in stunning fashion — only the fourth such fightback in our Premier League history — and the only disappointment was that we couldn’t quite find the winning goal, despite creating multiple great opportunities.
To underline the inconsistency, Enzo Maresca revealed that the only real change at half time was a motivational one. Must have been some team talk!
“Many times [I’ve had angry words at half time] but I promise you, not today. [Today] the message at half-time, because even if we were 2-0 down in the first half and the performance was not good, but from the bench I could see that the plan we prepared was the right one. So in the first half the message was just continue to trust what we do. It is a matter of scoring the first one and if we are able to do that we have a chance to win the game. So this was my message at half-time.”
St James’ Park is never an easy place to play, even on good days, which made the comeback even more impressive. A point gained for us then, and a fair reflection of the balance of play overall.
“After the first half, [Newcastle] deserved to win the game for sure. From my point of view, after the second half, we deserved to win the game. [And] after the second goal we scored, we had three or four clear chances to score one more. They also had one with Barnes, that is the only one that I remember as a real chance. But overall, I think the draw is correct.
“[But] the way [the players] showed in the second half, character, togetherness, they have to feel proud. Because you know […] 2-0 down against Newcastle away in this stadium, this noise, this environment is not easy. Not many teams can do that and they have done.”
-Enzo Maresca; source: Football.London
The draw leaves us fourth at Christmas, level on points with Liverpool (ahead on goal difference) but chasing the top-three, perhaps by as much as seven points if Aston Villa beat Manchester United on Sunday.
If we are to actually challenge for the title at some point in the near future, we’re going to have to figure out how to make it a game of two halves only in terms of the format and not the performances.
