The highlight of the opening Premier League matchday of the 2024-25 season was undoubtedly Chelsea’s home match against reigning league champions Manchester City. Having spent in excess of £160 million across eight new signings while also adding Tosin Adarabioyo on a free transfer, Chelsea entered this season seemingly reloaded and ready to prove that they weren’t just carried by Cole Palmer to sixth place in the league last season.
Instead, the clear gap between the two teams was more than evident. City were never really threatened as they eased to a 2-0 win over the Blues. Erling Haaland opened the scoring in the first half before Mateo Kovačić added a late goal against the club at which he’d spent four seasons.
For Chelsea, this was nothing short of a reality check. Heading into their opening fixture, many Chelsea fans had high hopes for the coming season due to their strong finish to the prior campaign that saw them climb into a Europa League spot, the hiring of Enzo Maresca who left Leicester City after coaching them for one season in which he helmed the Foxes to promotion into the Premier League, and their many new signings. However, as has so often been the case at Stamford Bridge since winning the league in 2014-15 (their league title two years later notwithstanding), it was once again a case of “back to the drawing board” for the London club.
Aside from Roméo Lavia and Cole Palmer, Chelsea brought absolutely nothing to the table against the Citizens. They were outplayed right from opening kick-off and never stood a chance. Chelsea’s back four in particular have to be questioned, in particular full-backs Malo Gusto and Marc Cucurella who were, for the majority of the match, easily outplayed by City wingers Jérémy Doku and Savinho—and on top of that, Doku and Savinho weren’t even close to City’s best players this time around.
For this same reason, Maresca’s selection of the starting 11 has to be questioned. While it’s understandable that the Italian might have prioritized continuity by benching all of Chelsea’s new signings, the real question ought to have been “is continuity even a good thing in this case?” That’s because Chelsea’s main issue last season was their over-dependence on Palmer (more on that later). Given the current starting 11’s struggles, perhaps it would’ve been a good idea to throw one or more of the newcomers into the fire and see if that would’ve changed anything.
Maresca also started Enzo Fernández at the attacking midfield slot which, while a position he can play to some extent, is far from his ideal. There’s a strong case to be made that Enzo ought to have started at his usual central midfield slot, moved Palmer to attacking midfielder, and started new signing Pedro Neto out wide, benching Ecuadorian midfielder Moisés Caicedo in the process.
On a related note, the off-season incident in which Enzo uttered racist epithets while celebrating Argentina’s Copa América victory has clearly impacted the team as a whole. It not only understandably drove a wedge between Enzo and his black teammates; it also dampened the morale of the team in general. The friction within the team was evident against City - and what really didn’t help was Maresca’s decision to delegate the captaincy to Enzo in the absence of regular captain Reece James and vice-captain Ben Chilwell.
Even more alarmingly for Chelsea: if this keeps up for too long, how many more years will Palmer remain one of theirs for? There’s every chance that if this ineptitude goes on for too long - and there’s no reason to assume it’ll stop any time soon - the Mancunian who even at age 22 is already Chelsea’s best player will seek a move out of west London to a club where his career can truly blossom.
Of course, this is just the first match - and one against the reigning league champions who are expected to defend their league title without too much difficulty at that. However, even with that in mind, it can’t be denied that the signs at Stamford Bridge are clearly concerning. Chelsea clearly haven’t fixed enough of the issues that have plagued them in recent years. A third consecutive season outside the Champions League spots - and plausibly worse - is likely.
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