Manchester City’s Premier League title defence got off to a winning start at Stamford Bridge, ruining Enzo Maresca’s first game in charge as Chelsea head coach.
Erling Haaland’s first goal of the season came after just 19 minutes, before Mateo Kovacic cut through Chelsea’s midfield to secure all three points for City with a long-range effort in the second half.
Chelsea fashioned rare hopeful attacking moves as they were largely outclassed by Pep Guardiola’s side.
But Maresca said: “I think we competed very well for much of the game. We were similar if not better. The performance was there but we didn’t take the chances.
“Probably the big difference was inside the box. I’m quite happy in terms of performance. For me, the important thing is to create chances. We didn’t score but we created chances.”
Here’s what we learned from Maresca’s Premier League bow…
How does Maresca handle a bloated squad?
Some report it is 43, some have said it is in the 50s. The truth is that the average number of players Chelsea have had in their squad over the past 10 years is 48, so at 42 by my reckoning, they are currently working with fewer players than that. You can make five substitutions and have nine on the bench.
Maresca’s first-team squad will be between 25 and 28. It is a narrative that has built up but it is not entirely accurate. Having finished sixth last season, they were also just three wins away from a Cup and Champions League place.
This was the first game – on August 18 – of an 11-month season that is due to end on July 13 following the FIFA Club World Cup. Maresca will streamline his squad and make more ruthless calls. Against a well-oiled City side, this was an early reality check of the size of the task he faces.
This was a good time to play Chelsea as Maresca continues to lay the foundations to his reign, but City have not won four Premier League titles in a row by taking a trip to Stamford Bridge on the opening weekend lightly. This was a professional job from start to finish.
By contrast, questions abound on the efficacy of the Clearlake Capital operation and Chelsea have a lot of outstanding business to conclude before September. It will be a thrill a minute under Maresca off the pitch, but his changes in the second half only briefly reignited belief in rescuing a draw.
Problems playing out from the back
Just as was witnessed in the 4-2 defeat by City in pre-season, Chelsea were steadfast in playing out from the back – even when the option really was not on. Jeremy Doku ought to have punished Malo Gusto when his shot deflected off Wesley Fofana and drew a brilliant save from Robert Sanchez when City were already in the ascendancy.
Sanchez then passed straight to Kevin De Bruyne barely 90 seconds into the second half in seeking Cole Palmer but his carelessness avoided severe ramifications.
There were plenty of groans in the first half when both Levi Colwill and Fofana were too slow in their build-up play, even ponderous on the ball due to a lack of movement in front of them. Maresca is trying to breathe courage into his players as Pep Guardiola has done at City, in a way he will know only too well having worked with the Catalan as his assistant.
It is an ideal the new boss will not waiver from after one game but the teething problems that were witnessed carrying out those instructions to work through the thirds were evident again here.
Lavia’s new beginning
Romeo Lavia impressed during Southampton’s 1-0 win at Stamford Bridge in February 2023, so much so that Chelsea forked out £58m on the 20-year-old Belgian last summer.
But Lavia played just 32 minutes in one substitute appearance during an injury-ravaged first season in which he worked under Mauricio Pochettino.
With Maresca in charge, this felt like a new beginning and Lavia can take encouragement from the 65 minutes before his withdrawal, building on a strong pre-season.
In seeking an equaliser, Maresca turned to the old Plan A of playing Moises Caicedo alongside Enzo Fernandez as Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall took on the No 10 role.
Lavia had 49 touches, which was only bettered by Marc Cucurella (69) during his time on the pitch.
Enzo handed Gallagher role
Conor Gallagher was Pochettino’s road runner, starting the press as Chelsea’s most advanced of the midfield three. Fernandez assumed that position against the defending champions, but he was not tied to it.
A lovely switch of play to Gusto having dropped deep – Harry Kane-like – was the best pass of the opening half while he operated up on the right in the second half to slide an inviting ball across the box that needed diverting wide by Rico Lewis at the far post.
In a season where there will be many moving pieces at Chelsea, Fernandez is likely to be one of the few constants. It was important the Argentine produced a mature display off the back of his Copa America misdemeanor but that well-documented act of misconduct is now behind him.
Gallagher is stuck in a holding pattern and we do not know at this point in time if his deal to Atletico Madrid will be revived. The Spanish club need to find a solution to generate the necessary funds. For as long as that rumbles on, Fernandez is likely to retain his place higher up the pitch.
Kovacic display highlights midfield issues
Chelsea’s three-man midfield cost the club a combined £255m, and yet it was a former player who looked the most convincing in a City shirt. Mateo Kovacic made 221 appearances during a five-year spell at Stamford Bridge, but he impressed in the absence of Rodri at the base of Guardiola’s midfield.
Not known for his goals, his clincher was a classy disguised finish and richly deserved.
Given City lost three of the four games when Rodri was absent last season, it was an important hurdle overcome on the opening day by the champions, who are unbeaten when the Spaniard has played in the past 18 months.
Maresca selected 11 players from the start who all knew each other from last season, but by the end, he had Dewsbury-Hall, Renato Veiga, Pedro Neto and Marc Guiu on the pitch.
That signalled just why it was so important for Chelsea to score first. In seeking fresh impetus, Maresca turned to players untested in these surroundings and so the team’s quest for parity resembled a search party among strangers in the night.
Jackson’s familiar problem
Only Darwin Nunez (33) has been offside more since start of last season than Nicolas Jackson. On Sunday, the 30th of the flags against him denied Chelsea an equaliser just before the break.
Ederson’s error was pounced on by the Senegalese striker but his close-range finish was rightly ruled out. He had just failed to get back onside.
Jackson is best when acting on instinct, he did on the hour-mark when he peeled off Ruben Dias to acrobatically force the save from Ederson from Lavia’s header back into the box.
It would prove the closest Chelsea came to a leveller as he was withdrawn not long after, taking his seat on the bench and reflecting again on what might have been. It progressively turned into a solid first season in England for Jackson, who finished on 17 goals during the 2023/24 campaign under Pochettino.
Chelsea ended the game with just two shots on target, but with a superior xG to their opponents. Jackson often needs three chances to score once. With Christopher Nkunku now fit and Maresca with an embarrassment of riches across the forward line, every blank will feel costly.
Will Chelsea be stuck with Sterling?
The pre-match build-up was dominated by Raheem Sterling’s entourage releasing an ill-timed statement on the player’s omission from the squad. He, along with Ben Chilwell, Carney Chukwuemeka and Axel Disasi had been left out.
Chilwell has been recovering from an illness but has been told to look for a new club while Maresca said Disasi was still coming back to full fitness. But for Chukwuemeka and Sterling, their absence was for “technical reasons”.
Sterling clearly did not take that news very well. On £325,000 a week, it is hard to imagine there will be a queue lining up to sign the 29-year-old, whose career appears to be in gradual decline.
Both player and club have signalled a need for clarity in the coming days. From the outside, it would appear that Chelsea are just eager to get his big wages off the books.
When asked about Sterling’s future afterwards, Maresca said: “I don’t know [if he will be part of my plans]. It’s a technical decision and in the next days we will clarify the situation.
“I want Raheem Sterling, but I want all the 30 players that we have. There is not space for all of them so some of them will have to leave.”