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Spurs blew a two goal advantage to lose to Chelsea in humiliating fashion on Sunday afternoon
Most of the fallout from Chelsea’s thrilling 4-3 comeback win over Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday has focused on Ange Postecoglou’s management of a staggeringly inconsistent side, or on Daniel Levy’s transfer policies which seem to have left Spurs short of depth and experience. Those are valid talking points, one way or the other, but also exclude a key factor in the final result – Chelsea were really rather good.
They have been for some time. It’s not that it’s escaped anybody’s notice, as such, bur rather that their current eight-match unbeaten run has come saddled with caveats concerning the failing of the opposition. They are second in the league, but very few people take them seriously as title contenders. There is a lingering assumption that they will lose matches down the line – but is that instinctive response a fair reflection of the job that Enzo Maresca has done?
Part of the scepticism is perhaps due to the largely irrefutable fact that Chelsea have been (at best) deeply inconsistent since the sudden end of the Roman Abramovich era, and their new owners have made so many mistakes, that the odds suggest that this will likely prove to be a false dawn purely because of their recent track record.
Part of it may be because their defence is visibly and statistically a step behind most of the other apparent contenders for a top four spot, let alone the title. Liverpool and Arsenal are both far more compact, organised, and allow fewer chances. Manchester City have been poor at the back this season but have a rather stronger historical track record. It’s hard to imagine any other team at the top shipping two early goals because their left-back was wearing the wrong boots, after all.
And maybe it’s just because this is, by and large, the same rather flaky team that Mauricio Pochettino took charge of last season – Chelsea may have spent another £200m or so over the summer and signed another 11 new players, but nine of Maresca’s starting eleven were at the club last year. Pochettino was getting a pretty decent tune out of that team by the end of the season, but they still started slowly and lost crucial games whenever they started to look anything like a team that could sneak a Champions League place.
None of which really mattered on Sunday. Having gone 2-0 down away from home, one imagines that Pochettino’s version of this team would have collapsed. That was certainly how things usually went. Instead, Cucurella got some new boots, the team as a whole girded their loins, and went on to score four consecutive goals, dominating the midfield and running the Spurs defence ragged before Son Heung-Min bagged a far-too-late consolation to take a little shine off the scoreline.
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The interesting thing is that Maresca hasn’t really changed all that much. Perhaps that’s another reason that many pundits don’t feel like they trust this Chelsea team to hang in there with Liverpool over the course of the campaign – it’s not just the same players as Pochettino but the same basic tactics and ideology.
It’s still 4-2-3-1, albeit with one extra man generally left back in possession. It’s still a passing-based system, even if Maresca’s team play more direct passes and spend less time controlling play in midfield. Most of the attack still goes through Cole Palmer. When so little has changed on the surface, it’s understandable that so many people would be sceptical of anything going on beneath the bonnet.
There is evidence that Maresca is making a big difference, however, even if he hasn’t really changed the tactical basis for the team all that much. Not only does the team feel more resilient overall, able to dig out tough points, but there are signs that Maresca is doing a first-rate job with individual players, too.
Take Nicolas Jackson, dangerous but often wayward in his first season and now far more consistent, scoring at a rate of 0.7 goals per game in the Premier League compared to 0.45 last season from a near-identical volume and quality of chances. Or Jadon Sancho, whose superb goal on Sunday was one of many hints of a player operating at a much higher level – and with far more confidence – than the one we saw lose his way at Manchester United.
And while his harsh handling of apparently unwanted or unappreciated players like Raheem Sterling and Ben Chilwell raised a few red flags at the very start of the season, the result has ultimately been a team of players who are hitting the high notes far more regularly. There are still some players who are yet to demonstrate their qualities week in, week out, but one can hardly blame Maresca for failing to get a tune out of João Félix or Mykhaylo Mudryk yet when so many other coaches have bashed their heads against the same brick walls without success.
The stats suggest a team that hasn’t really improved from last season by any immense degree. On average, they’re producing 0.13xG of chances more per match thus far, and conceding 0.18xG fewer to their opponents. That’s improvement, but hardly stark, and wherever you look at the raw data – the possession stats, the volume of shots or territory, and so on, you can only drive a small piece of paper between what Maresca is doing with the team and what Pochettino managed. But from a psychological and individual perspective, there are clear signs of improvement.
Chelsea will probably not win the Premier League this season. There are still flaws, especially at the back, and they are already well behind Liverpool, who are four clear with a game in hand and showing no signs of slowing down under Arne Slot. But a top four spot seems very achievable and would, from a financial and footballing standpoint, be a great relief. There is a long way to go, but this is a tougher Chelsea team that’s getting better and turning last season’s defeats into this season’s wins. Maybe appointing Maresca wasn’t quite such a mad idea after all.
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