It is hard to recover from a three-goal league defeat at Brighton & Hove Albion as Chelsea head coach… just ask Graham Potter.
With Enzo Maresca looking increasingly forlorn on Friday evening as his Chelsea side came second to Brighton in every department, it brought back memories of Potter’s own humiliation in October 2022.
Back then, Chelsea lost 4-1 rather than 3-0, but most of the same ingredients were there, with Chelsea outfought, outthought and outplayed.
There were even two members of Chelsea’s first XI on the receiving end again in centre-back Trevoh Chalobah and former Brighton left-back Marc Cucurella. Moises Caicedo experienced a contrast. On this occasion, the midfielder was wearing a Chelsea shirt rather than a Brighton one and getting abuse from the home crowd rather than cheers as he was when on the winning team against Potter’s Chelsea three years ago.
At least Potter’s Chelsea managed a shot on target that day, seven in fact. Maresca’s suffered the ignominy of not registering a single goal-bound effort, which has not happened to them in a Premier League game since September 2021 against Manchester City.
The jeers and taunts from the Brighton fans were perhaps even louder than in 2022 given their side had also knocked Chelsea out of the FA Cup on the same pitch just six days earlier. “Can we play you every week?” they sang with great mirth.
What has Potter’s painful experience got anything to do with the here and now?
Well, Potter proved unable to turn the negative momentum around after his humbling at the home of his former club. Chelsea lost 10 of their next 21 matches, winning only six, and he was dismissed. Like Maresca, Potter was also given a five-year contract at Stamford Bridge, but that counted for nothing in the face of such mounting adversity. He ended up staying for less than seven months.
Maresca has been in situ for one month longer and it is far too early to say his job is under threat. However, the Italian is showing a similar inability to get better results after setbacks. Chelsea have not won away in the league since December 8 and have picked up just nine points from as many matches overall.
Maresca told BBC Sport after the match that “probably since I arrived, that is the worst performance”. He also admitted to Sky Sports, “I feel pressure always.”
Perhaps the most alarming revelation was provided by full-back Malo Gusto to Premier League Productions when he said, “They had more desire to win than us.” This does not reflect well on the players selected, nor the man who picked them.
The strong team spirit seen in the early months has disappeared. Players are gesturing angrily at each other rather than being supportive.
Instead of leading by example, Chelsea’s best player, Cole Palmer, is letting his frustration show regularly. It took assistant coach Willy Caballero to convince the players, including Palmer, to acknowledge the small section of away fans who had remained until the end. Yet like their display in attack over the previous 90-plus minutes, it was half-hearted.
Pressed on whether Palmer should be setting a better precedent, Maresca replied after the match, “We need all of them, in this moment, to be more positive because this is a moment where we need to stick together and try to finish in the best way.”
It may not be what every follower wants to hear, but Chelsea have been happy with the job Maresca has done so far. Chelsea have stayed in the top four for the majority of the campaign and he was told on taking the post that he was not expected to qualify for the Champions League until next season.
There is also sympathy for the impact injuries have had on the team. In the past two months, Wesley Fofana, Benoit Badiashile, Romeo Lavia, Nicolas Jackson and Marc Guiu have all been sidelined. Noni Madueke has joined them with the hamstring strain he picked up in the first half against Brighton on Friday night. Mykhailo Mudryk is unavailable due to being provisionally suspended in December for testing positive for a banned substance.
But many Chelsea fans have little sympathy for all this. They are clearly growing increasingly restless, just as they did when Potter began to struggle. The away end at Brighton emptied significantly after Chelsea went 3-0 down with still over half an hour to play (including added time), which is never a good sign.
Beforehand, loud chants for former owner Roman Abramovich were heard as well as “We want our Chelsea back”. A strong indication of how quickly the mood has soured is that a few months ago fans were singing “We’ve got our Chelsea back” during a 5-1 victory at Southampton.
Maresca is not the only source of their anger. The Todd Boehly-Clearlake consortium, plus co-sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart, are not going to win many popularity contests at the moment.
But Maresca, the third permanent coach hired by the current regime, has to come up with solutions to Chelsea’s poor form, and fast, to improve his own standing in the polls.
(Top photo: Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)
