There were no answers to Chelsea’s search for consistency here. Instead there was a late, potentially damaging defeat that leaves them staring down the barrel of a February playoff for the last 16, along with further suggestions they lack what it takes to face down a tough away assignment at this level.
Enzo Maresca’s side looked well set when João Pedro scored against the run of play after 25 minutes. Atalanta had begun to flounder before Gianluca Scamacca’s leveller but grew in strength and Chelsea sank when Charles De Ketelaere drove in seven minutes from time, completing a torrid week on the road.
If it had been tricky to gauge which version of Chelsea would turn up, the same could be said of their hosts. Held up by Maresca before the match as a glowing beacon amid the faltering fortunes of Italy’s major powers, they have fallen to mid-table in Serie A this season while prospering in Europe. Their former manager Gian Piero Gasperini, now with Roma, forged miracles here; in appointing one of his proteges, Raffaele Palladino, to replace the hapless Ivan Juric last month the hope locally was that the old magic could be recaptured.
They may have sensed blood in the water given Maresca characteristically rolled the dice, making five changes from the goalless trudge at Bournemouth. Cole Palmer, freshly back, was kept at home to avoid overexertion; Josh Acheampong was granted a first Champions League start at right-back in a reshuffled defence; and João Pedro led the line in the absence of Liam Delap, whose shoulder injury will sideline him for around a month.
