For the first time this season, Enzo Maresca’s praise of Chelsea’s process felt overly charitable.
“I think it worked if we analyse the performance,” he insisted after Newcastle ended his second string team’s Carabao Cup hopes with a 2-0 win at St James’ Park on Wednesday. “If we analyse the result, it didn’t work. But I think for 22 or 23 minutes, until their goal, we were in control of the game, we didn’t concede nothing.
“Then after the goal, we lost control for 10 minutes and then conceded the second one. In the last 10 minutes of the first half, we had two or three clear chances that unfortunately we didn’t score. In the second half, we were in control of the game.
“The most important thing, as we always say, is the result but the performance… we lost the game because of 10 minutes after the first goal and then for the rest, we were quite good.”
Maresca’s assessment of Chelsea’s early “control” omitted the fact that Joelinton struck the post for Newcastle inside three minutes, having raced into the penalty area to meet Alexander Isak’s cross with the visitors’ makeshift right side combination of Axel Disasi and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall labouring in his wake.
It also overlooked the numerous warning signs that Newcastle’s energetic press had the measure of Chelsea’s predictable passing patterns out of defence before Benoit Badiashile played Renato Veiga into trouble on the edge of his own penalty area in the 23rd minute, and the Portugal international’s rushed pass was sent by Sandro Tonali straight up to Isak for a simple finish.
Once those 10 bad minutes had passed, Chelsea pushed forward with greater ease as Newcastle voluntarily dropped back, protecting a 2-0 lead bolstered by Disasi’s farcical own goal after the visitors had switched off defending a quick free-kick.
Filip Jorgensen looks on as Newcastle celebrate their second goal (Andy Buchanan/Getty Images)
At times in the second half the home side were made moderately uncomfortable in their defensive shell — most often when Mykhailo Mudryk sprang free down the left — but hardly to the extent that nothing could be gained from introducing Cole Palmer, who had carved open the same opponents only three days earlier.
Maresca’s decision not to dust off maybe the best attacker in the Premier League as Chelsea searched for a momentum-shifting moment of inspiration at St James’ Park laid bare his broader priorities, because his effective B team never came close to convincing that they would pass their first serious test of this season (with apologies to Barrow, Gent and Panathinaikos).
There are question marks all over this second string. Cup goalkeeper is a perilous gig but Filip Jorgensen’s distribution and decision-making did not mark him out as an upgrade on the widely maligned Robert Sanchez. Marc Cucurella was the only reliable figure in the back four, a state of affairs that would have seemed fantastical a year ago. Veiga has promise but remains very raw, while Enzo Fernandez currently seems incapable of dictating a game.
Joao Felix offered a familiar combination of nice touches and no end product. Dewsbury-Hall looked ill at ease on the right wing, but has rarely looked anything else in a Chelsea shirt. Christopher Nkunku was oddly subdued for long stretches against Newcastle, leaving Mudryk as the brightest attacking outlet — positive progress for him, but an indictment of the collective.
Then there is the issue of team balance. By picking both of his best right-backs (Reece James and Malo Gusto) and both of his best right wingers (Pedro Neto and Noni Madueke) from the start against Newcastle on Sunday, Maresca created the conditions for too many square pegs in round holes with wholesale changes for this Carabao Cup tie.
Disasi is amassing an overwhelming body of evidence that he simply is not a viable right-back against serious opposition, where his difficulties defending in space and technical limitations with the ball at his feet are too readily and regularly exposed. Dewsbury-Hall’s inclusion ahead of him ensured that Chelsea’s right flank, so often the strongest part of this team, became a point of weakness until the introduction of Madueke in the second half.
Chelsea’s starters succeeded in using Newcastle’s pressing instincts against them at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, picking precise passes into the feet of Palmer and Nicolas Jackson who repeatedly turned and exploited the space in behind Fabian Schar and Dan Burn. That began with the likes of Gusto, James, Levi Colwill, Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia judging when to stick to Maresca’s build-up script and when to improvise around the edges.
This style of play leaves little margin for error against aggressive, organised Premier League opponents. Maresca’s strongest XI executes it well enough for the rewards to outweigh the risks more often than not, and should improve further with more time and greater familiarity. That particular equation is not as favourable with Chelsea’s second string, even if very few (if any) Europa Conference League sides are likely to be able to seriously punish them for it.
Defeat can be a better learning experience than victory. Uncompetitive wins over Barrow, Gent and Panathinaikos told Maresca little about which players on the fringes of his Chelsea squad are equipped to help him in the matches that matter most, and which ones are not. He will have a much better idea now and just in time, with Manchester United to face at Old Trafford on Sunday and Arsenal due to visit Stamford Bridge before the November international break.
Both of those testing matches — separated by another Europa Conference League outing for the second string at home against FC Noah next week — carry more heft now Maresca has signalled that he will not compromise Chelsea’s top-four challenge in the Premier League by exerting his key players in the domestic cups.
His strategy will pay off if Palmer and the rest of Chelsea’s starters continue to give him results, rather than just performances, to point to.
(Top photo: George Wood/Getty Images)
