Complacent, error-prone and no plan B: Inside the 9 days that ended Chelsea’s title cost earlier than it might start

From Premier League title talk to Champions League FOMO. If ever there were proof of how rapidly a conversation surrounding a club can change, Chelsea’s mini-slump has provided it.

Their 0-0 draw with Everton, 2-1 loss to Fulham and 2-0 defeat by Ipswich – all coming within the space of nine days – has shifted perceptions. Consensus suggests it was perhaps folly to ever consider them equal challengers to established contenders in Liverpool and Arsenal but the fact is after beating Brentford in mid-December they were just two points off the top.

Enzo Maresca will face the media today ahead of travelling to Crystal Palace tomorrow, and the silver lining, if one exists, is he will not be asked whether they can be crowned champions this season. He never liked those questions, looking back as if we were as deluded as those folks who claim Jesus Christ appeared on their piece of toast.

Instead, he can expect to be quizzed on the resurrection required now that they have wobbled at the halfway mark, and how much damage is being done to their chances of Champions League qualification by flatlining in games they really ought to be winning.

This is the first major test of Maresca’s credentials since he arrived at Chelsea. The 44-year-old Italian was able to distance himself from the club’s other dramas – the Enzo Fernandez racism scandal in the summer, the divide between Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital, the Mykhailo Mudryk doping investigation, and so on. ‘My focus is on the pitch because it is the only thing I can control,’ he has reminded us. But this? This is his territory.

This is tactics, this is motivation, and this is a challenge he must overcome if he does not want the ‘told you so’ merchants dusting down their keyboards after the summer scrutiny on his appointment.

It was while waiting for Maresca to enter the press conference room after Chelsea’s latest deficient display that some local Ipswich reporters were chewing over what they had witnessed. One took us all the way back to the warm-up, where he said that of all the Premier League visitors to rock up at Portman Road, he had not seen a side going through the motions as much as Chelsea.

Only Maresca’s players will know whether they treated that trip any differently to others as Christopher Nkunku produced stepovers, Noni Madueke performed keepie-uppies, and so on. If the group did indeed arrive at Ipswich anticipating an easy evening, then that was their first mistake, as England’s elite level has no time for such entitlement.

Ipswich may have had six starters in their side who were with the club in League One – Christian Walton, Luke Woolfenden, Leif Davis, Sam Morsy, Wes Burns and Nathan Broadhead have all joined their manager Kieran McKenna on that journey – but they wanted it more. Liam Delap is a striker admired internally at Chelsea, and the Englishman previously managed by Maresca in Manchester City’s Elite Development Squad led the bullying from the very front.

They made Chelsea look like what they are – the youngest team in the Premier League working with a new head coach. Maresca has spent a significant portion of his season trying to turn his boys into men, giving kicks up the backside to Madueke, Reece James, even Cole Palmer on occasion. Up to now, he has performed these public critiques from a position of strength, but when the team are falling below expectations, it smacks as a much more risky strategy.

Maresca must now show why Chelsea chose him in the summer over McKenna and Co. When searching for Mauricio Pochettino’s successor, seven criteria were drawn up for measuring their candidates, one of which was a ‘desire to control games with defensive stability’.

Yet a pattern emerged over the Christmas period. The Blues managed their highest possession figures of the season – 75 per cent at Everton and 76 per cent at Ipswich – but failed to score in consecutive Premier League away games for the first time since February 2019.

Opponents appear increasingly content to let the Blues have the ball, man-marking Palmer to limit his influence and believing they lack the ruthlessness required even if they do find a way through.

There is also growing optimism that at some stage over the 90 minutes Chelsea will gift them a chance, as was the case when Axel Disasi played the erroneous pass in his own defensive third of the pitch which led to Omari Hutchinson scoring against his old club to confirm Ipswich’s first Premier League home win for 8,286 days.

Disasi was a centre back playing at right back, despite Josh Acheampong, Malo Gusto and James being on the substitutes’ bench, as Maresca’s team tweaks did not work this time.

Maresca was pleased enough with the performance. He has already reminded his players how many chances they created and that on another day, they would have scored from several of them.

He will hope to halt being a card-carrying member of the ‘coulda, woulda, shoulda’ club tomorrow when they travel to Palace, another side who are likely to let them control possession. The Blues had 63 per cent when they faced the Eagles earlier in the season, and drew 1-1 in another outing where they were nowhere near ruthless enough.

Maresca has been here before. At Leicester last season, he lost three games within two weeks to Bristol City, Millwall and Plymouth, each by a scoreline of 1-0.

Guillem Balague, the Spanish football journalist who cheerleads Maresca, reposted clips from those losses showing Leicester creating big chances. He wrote at the time: ‘Considering a coach prepares the team to take the ball from one end to another, what else can a coach do here?’

In other words, he’s leading the horse to water, so don’t blame him if it doesn’t drink. Leicester supporters countered that it was on Maresca for selecting the same old starters, not using his substitutes properly and making the same mistakes week in, week out with the Championship’s strongest squad as Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity was cited.

Maresca stands accused of something similar at Chelsea, particularly considering his reluctance to utilise his bench to its full potential, given the depth at his disposal. It is a squad so strong that in the Conference League, they have been able to use a B team and win all six of their outings by a combined score of 26-5.

A look back at the last four games shows there was one substitute versus Brentford, two versus Everton, one versus Fulham, and four used at Ipswich but only once they were trailing 2-0. Questions are being asked as to whether he trusts Joao Felix, for example, and how much say he had in that £45million summer signing from Atletico Madrid when academy graduate and fan favourite Conor Gallagher went the other way.

Maresca is grappling with injury issues, particularly at the back. Mail Sport has had it confirmed that they are recalling Aaron Anselmino from his loan to Boca Juniors, so the 19-year-old Argentinian could provide some reinforcement in the defensive department. The January window is also now open, though Chelsea insiders maintain they are not going to overreact by splashing the cash.

This is a strong squad that Maresca is working with, regardless of injuries, and one which should have picked up more than a point from three fixtures with Everton, Fulham and Ipswich.

It was after their latest loss that one of the club’s many social media aggregators posted a poll asking his hundreds of thousands of followers if they would still make it into Europe’s elite competition. The belief is still there among supporters, with 73 per cent predicting they will.

Maresca is not panicking either. If you had offered him fourth position at this stage in the summer, he would have taken it before you could complete the proposal, and finishing fifth might even be enough to qualify for the Champions League next season.

The A team are expected to return for Palace, including goalkeeper Robert Sanchez over Filip Jorgensen, Jadon Sancho over Felix, Pedro Neto over Madueke and Nicolas Jackson over Nkunku.

Chelsea’s last three victories at Selhurst Park have all required winners in the final seconds, but Maresca could do with a controlled win this time around to bring back the optimism of their season’s first half.