Chelsea’s hopes of winning the Premier League title this season took a big hit this week when they lost 3-1 to Leeds United at Elland Road. After a tough week that had seen them beat Barcelona and Arsenal, Enzo Maresca’s team looked tired. However, this latest loss has changed the statistical outlook for their season in a big way.
Leeds played well and scored three goals, one from Jaka Bijol, one from Ao Tanaka, and one from Dominic Calvert-Lewin, which led to a painful loss for the West Londoners. Cole Palmer came back from an injury in the second half, but the result has changed what people expect from the 2025/26 season.
Opta says that Chelsea is most likely to finish in fourth place this season, despite the Blues being in the title race before losing at Elland Road.. Their predictive model gives the Blues only a 1.33% chance of winning the Premier League trophy. The next most likely place for the Blues to finish is third.
After the loss, winger Pedro Neto, who came off the bench to score Chelsea’s only goal, said that the team’s performance was not up to par. He told beIN SPORTS:
“They were better than us at everything. It’s difficult to take, we have to learn from that. Sometimes, it happens, we had a bad day. They had more intensity, attitude, won the second balls, and had more desire than us. We cannot take games for granted.”
Neto stressed that the players need to take responsibility for the outcome at Elland Road, even though the schedule is tough:
“Of course, it hurts, it’s the worst part of football. Sometimes, you can lose and say you gave everything on the pitch, but today, we have to take some responsibility, all of us.”
Maresca’s policy of rotating Chelsea players in the limelight
The way the team lost has brought attention to Enzo Maresca’s management of the team. Club legend John Terry has reportedly said that the manager may need to rethink his mass rotation policy in the coming weeks.
The Blues will play Bournemouth next on Saturday, and making big changes like he did at Elland Road may not help Chelsea finish in the top four. Maresca notably left important players like Reece James, Pedro Neto, and Malo Gusto on the bench against Leeds.
This decision seemed to backfire because the visitors had trouble working together. The Italian manager, on the other hand, has a headache to deal with because the tough schedule means he has to keep players fresh for important European matches and domestic games.
The rotation was meant to save energy, but the risk at Elland Road ended up costing Chelsea a lot in their quest to qualify for the Champions League.