Chelsea made it four on the spin without a win, losing 2-1 in the Champions League to midtable Serie A side Atalanta last night. The Blues took the lead in the first half but were unable to make that count, making it just one win in our last five away games in all competitions.
All eight of Atalanta’s goals in this season’s Champions League have been scored in the second half, and they came from behind in similar fashion to beat Club Brugge as well, but we only had ourselves to blame for the outcome.
While we certainly were nowhere near our best, Atalanta weren’t exactly imperious either. And so, in a battle of fairly evenly matched teams (which shouldn’t have been the case, at least on paper), they came out on top.
Atalanta started the game very brightly, but after we weathered that early storm, we took the lead with practically our first meaningful attack of the game. That allowed us to settle in and establish a solid foothold in the game. However, we lost that after the break and were never able to reestablish it. For Enzo Maresca, that was the biggest factor in this defeat.
“In the second half, I think we had two good chances to score the second one. And then again, after we conceded the 1-1 [goal], we lost a little bit of control of the game, and then we conceded the second one. I think both goals, we can avoid both of them, they’re quite easy goals.”
As is often the case with Maresca when results go against us, his substitutions get called into question. In this one, he took Trevoh Chalobah off at half-time, mixing up the defense yet again, and then had to take off his replacement, Wesley Fofana as well, after his eye started swelling up from an accidental boot in the face. That part is obviously unlucky, but it means that we used three different center back combinations in one game, which is a rare thing indeed — and surely one major factor in conceding “easy goals”.
Maresca also only used four of his substitutes (and just two of his substitution windows), leaving Estêvão on the sidelines with the team still needing a goal.
“Trev [is] playing every minute in every game [and] he was on a yellow card, so to avoid a little bit of that. So this is the reason why we changed that.
“[Then] the change of Tosin, is because Wes, we needed to change him, so that was a bit enforced. With one more change, probably there was more chance for Estêvão to go inside or for Andrey [Santos] to go inside. But then with that change, it changed a little bit the plan of the game.”
One thing is clear, having now matched his own longest winless streak as Chelsea manager — and practically scuppered any chance of finishing in the top eight in the league phase — a win is absolutely needed at home against Everton on Saturday.
“Yes, we are aware, absolutely [of the difficulty of finishing in the top eight]. But now that the game is finished, now the focus has to be on Saturday game, because now we need as soon as possible to win games.”
-Enzo Maresca; source: Football.London
Yep.
