A win for Chelsea, a much-needed once after four games without, and in many ways a routine one – and yet it was also a game that highlighted the oddity of Enzo Maresca’s side. He has a squad packed with extraordinary talent, capable of passages of exceptional football, but they are also wildly inconsistent, even within individual games. They won easily, could have won more easily, and also had spells when the game threatened to slip from their grasp.
Chelsea have become extremely difficult to read. Every time it looks like everything might be coalescing into something coherent, perhaps even title-challenging, they stutter, and every time it looks like a blip might become a crisis, they embark on a run of positive form.
When they drew against Arsenal late last month, despite being reduced to 10 men before half-time, it meant they had lost one in 12 in all competitions and it was possible to see them taking advantage if Arsenal faltered. Since then, they have lost to Leeds and Atalanta and been held to a draw at Bournemouth. They began the weekend fifth, eight points off the top, and are 13th in the Champions League table.
Perhaps that level of inconsistency is inevitable with a squad so young; which is where it’s worth remembering that their youth is a policy based not in economic necessity but a conscious decision to regard players as assets to be spun and sold at profit.
