Enzo Maresca has caused quite the stir this week with his comments after a defeat to Brighton in the FA Cup.
His team took the lead but then were really pathetic in how they tried to capitalise on it. Just as we saw in the Man City game a couple of weeks ago – and in fact in countless games over the last few years – the Blues sat back and lost their spirit, allowing their opposition back into the fight rather than treading on their neck while they had the chance.
This is frustrating in isolation – and it’s especially frustrating in the context of a team that does this week in, week out. The fact that after the game Maresca didn’t take any blame, didn’t show any anger towards his players, and instead just pointed out that this would actually be a “positive” in helping them focus on the league and the Conference League, was particularly galling.
Of course, while the messaging is terrible and reveals more of the dreadful, losers mentality that has taken over this club, the logic is sound – fewer games means fresher players for league games. But that means there are now no longer any excuses for not making the top four.
Are Chelsea still in the race for the Champions League, despite a collapse in form since Christmas? Even the best ipl betting sites will give you the same answer – they are, but they’re fading fast.
Back in December they were second in the league and second favourite to make the top 4, with incredibly short odds. Two months of declining results and performances along with improvements from teams around them now make Maresca’s team fourth favourites, dropping almost to evens to qualify.
A few more bad results and we’ll really be in trouble. We’ve got a real patchwork of games coming up – Aston Villa and Arsenal will be tough, Southampton and Leicester less so. Tottenham? Nobody has any idea what they’ll produce from game to game, but they’ll likely have a lot of injured players back by then and we can’t expect them to stay this poor forever.
But first up, our next game comes on Friday, when we face the same team who dumped us out of the club last weekend. Maresca needs to show the truth in his logic from last week and “focus” on earning 3 vital points in that game against Brighton. Failure to do that will make his quotes even more embarrassing in hindsight.
