As sharp as it was, Enzo Maresca isn’t one for excuses — even he couldn’t, surely, ignore the elephant in the room, Chelsea falling 1 0 to Arsenal at the Emirates. So, Maresca has a point, his Chelsea side battled for most of the match against the Gunners. A well-taken corner, which saw Mikel Merino head in the decisive goal hardly separated the difference between the two sides.
But Maresca is optimistic of further success: ‘Chelsea fans maybe are not happy with another disappointing result but it’s not the time to stop in January.’ With one of your top three scorers’ gone, you’d probably give yourself a small break too.
Missing Firepower: Maresca’s Biggest Challenge
So, a battle is a lot harder to win with your best weapons absent and Maresca was without three of his main attacking threats in the shape of Nicolas Jackson, Noni Madueke and Cole Palmer. Fighting a sword duel with a butter knife is just that.
“Obviously, it fits in very well; it makes a huge difference,” Maresca, probably with the mind already wrapped in bubbles for his forwards’ future protection, admitted. With these absences, it is very impressive that Chelsea are still sitting third in the league for attacking records, as they find themselves constantly on an injury bingo card.
And to be honest, simple reality: against a well-oiled Arsenal machine, you need your best players on the park. With no signposts on how to get out of this, Chelsea’s attack was unable to find the killer instinct, though Marc Cucurella was closest for the Blues.
Set-Pieces: The Thorn in Maresca’s Side
Maresca was quite straightforward on where the match was won and lost—set pieces. And he’s not wrong. For Chelsea, Arsenal was simply applying their best formula for dealing with visitors on this patch of turf—execute set-pieces with clinical precision.
“The game was 50/50,” Maresca said. “They’re good at a setpiece; they are masters at that.” He’s not exaggerating. For Arsenal, a trophy cabinet stacked with goals far from their own home zip code would exist solely for set piece strikes.
Maresca knows, though, that the margins in these close games are thin. Chelsea would have to improve their set piece defense—and maybe just maybe copy Arsenal’s playbook—if they are to leapfrog into a Champions League spot.
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