Chelsea were beaten comfortably 3-1 by Leeds at Elland Road in a hugely deflating comedown after a good couple of months.
The first half was a total disaster. Enzo Maresca had decided to rotate his team a little, understandably. But it backfired horribly. Tosin was a disaster at centre back, Benoit Badiashile made mistakes too. Trevoh Chalobah has been brilliant in the middle but was shuffled to the right where he struggled. And that was just the defence.
Without Moises Caicedo or Reece James the midfield was so soft and so open, meanwhile the attack did nothing. The likes of Jamie Gittens just turned and passed back time after time rather than challenging his man. Leeds went one nil up after a header from a corner, then added a second with a superb ranged strike as Chelsea were so slow in getting out to close down Ao Tanaka.
2-0 down at half time was the least Chelsea deserved. It could only get better and it did. Pedro Neto came on at half time and improved things instantly. Gittens finally took on his man on the left, made some space then [picked out Neto’s far post run](https://chelsea.news/2025/12/gittens-chelsea-score-finally-video-score/). The winger scored to make it 2-1 with plenty of time to play.
Then Cole Palmer made his long awaited return, giving the sense that a point at least could be salvaged. But it couldn’t. In fact, there was time for yet more embarrassment. Tosin made his bad night even worse by getting robbed of the ball in his own six yard box, handing Leeds a third goal which killed all of Chelsea’s momentum just as they looked to be building up a head of steam.
On the back of a really positive week this is a huge blow, and the last thing the Blues wanted going into a month with 8 games.
**MOTM – Pedro Neto**
Analysis
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Pedro Neto celebrates his goal against Leeds. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
Enzo Maresca’s changes to his team brought a lot of criticism, but we do have some sympathy. Caicedo wasn’t available; James and Fofana can’t play 3 times in a week. There have to be changes sometime.
One things we didn’t understand was the use of Chalobah at right back with a new central defensive pairing. Josh Acheampong was brilliant in his appearances last month but has been frozen out since. This was the perfect chance to use him on the right and at least leave two of the back four in the places they usually take up.
Teams
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**Leeds**
Lucas Perri
Joe Rodon
Jaka Bijol
Pascal Struijk
Jayden Bogle
Ao Tanaka
Ethan Ampadu
Anton Stach
Gabriel Gudmundsson
Dominic Calvert-Lewin
Lukas Nmecha
_Substitutes_
Karl Darlow
Joel Piroe (s 86′)
Brenden Aaronson
Noah Okafor (s 67′)
Jack Harrison
Sebastiaan Bornauw (s 90′)
James Justin (s 87′)
Degnand Gnonto
Ilia Gruev (s 67′)
**Chelsea**
Robert Sanchez
Trevoh Chalobah
Tosin Adarabioyo
Benoit Badiashile
Marc Cucurella
Enzo Fernandez
Andrey Santos
de Oliveira Estevao
de Jesus Joao Pedro
Jamie Bynoe-Gittens
Liam Delap
_Substitutes_
Filip Jorgensen
Lomba Pedro Neto (s 46′)
Cole Palmer (s 61′)
Jorrel Hato
Reece James
Malo Gusto (s 46′)
Josh Acheampong
Marc Guiu (s 77′)
Alejandro Garnacho (s 61′)
Stats
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Quote of the game
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“They were much better than us.” – Enzo Maresca keeps it simple post game.