Chelsea suffered their third Premier League defeat of the season in the weekend clash against Sunderland, and supporters pinned a lot of blame on Enzo Maresca.
After just nine league games in the 2025-26 campaign, Chelsea have now lost three times. The latest setback was Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at home to Sunderland.
Chemsdine Talbi scored a winner in stoppage time for the visitors at Stamford Bridge to take three points, which has left the Blues reflecting on what’s now turned out to be an average start to the season. Ultimately, Paul Merson felt Chelsea ran out of ideas against Sunderland.
Enzo Maresca, the Blues’ head coach, will need to have a major debrief. His side travel to Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Carabao Cup next before a massive away fixture at rivals Tottenham in the Premier League.
Enzo Maresca watches his Chelsea side against Sunderland in the Premier League match.
Photo by Alex Broadway/Getty Images
Chelsea fans fuming with Enzo Maresca for Alejandro Garnacho substitution
Even though Chelsea got nothing out of the Sunderland fixture, they went ahead very early when Alejandro Garnacho scored his first goal for the club.
The 21-year-old wide man tried to provide an attacking threat from the left wing as the hosts huffed and puffed against a stubborn opponent. Eventually, Garnacho was taken off in the 58th minute as the first substitution.
On reflection, Chelsea supporters on X are raging with Maresca for the decision to take off the goalscorer before the hour mark, suggesting that other teammates should have been removed before him.
One fan commented: “Garnacho was probably the only attacker having a decent game … so of course he’s the first one Maresca subs off. No wonder he was shaking his head.”
“Maresca taking out the attacker who was most likely to score today in Garnacho was not the move,” another posted.
And tell me Maresca chose to sub off Garnacho in place of Pedro Neto.
In short, Maresca happened again today.
— Chivalry 💫 (@UncleFemi_) October 25, 2025
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One supporter wrote: “Maresca’s tactical incompetence. Taking Garnacho off and leaving Joao Pedro killed the team.”
“Maresca makes terrible substitutions. Why take off Garnacho so early?” another said.
It was imperative for Maresca to get Estevao Willian on the pitch against Sunderland, but we agree that Garnacho was a tad unfortunate to be the player to make way.
Marc Guiu, Pedro Neto and Joao Pedro looked pretty quiet as the rest of the front four, so perhaps the manager could have shuffled his pack in a different way.
Alejandro Garnacho dribbling for Chelsea against Sunderland in the Premier League.
Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images
Alejandro Garnacho stats vs Sunderland
In fairness, Garnacho was fairly bright during just under an hour on the pitch, especially with his early goal that he fired in with a low left-footed finish.
Here is a look at his individual stats against Sunderland via FOTMOB:
Minutes played – 58
Goals – 1
Total shots – 4
Shots on target – 2/4 (50%)
Chances created – 0
Accurate passes – 17/21 (81%)
Touches – 37
Touches in opposition box – 6
Successful dribbles – 0/1 (0%)
Was fouled – 1
Fouls committed – 1
Match rating – 7.2
It is quite obvious that Garnacho, who joined from Manchester United in the summer, is still a work in progress. The fact he got on the scoresheet was one small positive from a tough defeat against Sunderland.
We still think his overall game will need to improve to cement a spot in the starting line-up, but there is definitely a baseline there for Maresca to work with.
It is worth noting that Garnacho is yet to complete 90 minutes in any of his seven Chelsea appearances.