Chelsea touched down in southern Italy with the knowledge that a win at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona would almost certainly seal a Champions League Round of 16 spot. Yet Napoli are the reigning Serie A champions and needed to claim three points for their own European ambitions.

Rosenior had a game plan and was ready to react to how events unfolded on the pitch. Here, we discuss three different aspects of the game that ensured victory in Naples – and make sure to check out further analysis of Joao Pedro's performance after he was named Player of the Match on the Chelsea Official App.

Quieting the Maradona

Napoli are rarely beaten at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona. Before the Blues' visit, their last defeat had come against Lazio in December 2024. Twenty-five matches had passed since.

Antonio Conte's side also had to win to keep their European campaign alive; any other result would see them finish outside of the knockout phase play-off positions. The high stakes resulted in the Napoli supporters creating a fervent atmosphere come kick-off.

Rosenior's side couldn't let that be harnessed. Yet rather than take a cautious approach, the Chelsea head coach asked his side to be aggressive. The Blues pressed man-to-man across the pitch, which blunted Napoli's attacking threat.

During the opening 20 minutes, the home side were unable to register a shot on goal. In fact, Napoli only had two touches in the Chelsea penalty area before Fernandez opened the scoring for the Blues from the penalty spot.

'I wanted to go man-for-man all over the pitch,' Rosenior said 'We knew we needed to win the game and I wanted to be really aggressive. I felt we won the ball back very high in good areas in the first 20 minutes.'

Going behind did spur Napoli into life, though. To bypass our press, Conte's side started to play longer and engaged the Blues higher up the pitch (they had made two recoveries across the middle and attacking thirds in the first 20 minutes, but were up to nine by the break).

'When they started to bypass our press and went a little bit more direct, the distances [between players] were a little bit bigger, so we corrected that. We were still man-to-man in the second half, but we started a bit deeper with our press and I think that helped our compactness.'

Enzo's dominance

However, as the hour mark approached, the Blues trailed and sat outside of the top eight in the league phase table. Rosenior had to act and made two changes. The first was the introduction of Trevoh Chalobah for Malo Gusto, which saw Reece James move from centre-back to right-back.

The second saw Jamie Gittens replace Andrey Santos. It resulted in Fernandez dropping deeper into midfield and Cole Palmer moving into the number ten role.

Two minutes later, the Blues equalised, with James and Palmer involved in the build-up to Joao Pedro's thunderous strike. Fernandez, meanwhile, became our most influential player in possession, as Rosenior highlighted in his post-match press conference.

'I thought Andrey Santos had a very good game, but we needed to go for the win,' the Blues head coach explained. 'When Enzo moved back into the six role, he started to really dominate and control the game alongside Moi.'

The stats reflect that. No Chelsea player produced more passes than Fernandez (38) in the final 30 minutes of the game. He also registered seven ball recoveries, a figure unmatched by anyone in blue.

Add in the Argentine's nerveless penalty earlier in the evening, which opened the scoring, and it was yet another influential display from Fernandez on the big stage.

Palmer makes his mark

There was little surprise that Cole Palmer started the game on the substitutes' bench. The England international was absent from our previous two matches due to a thigh issue and wasn't fully match fit, as Rosenior confirmed after the game.

‘There was no way Cole could have started this game and played 60, 70 or 80 minutes,’ the Blues head coach admitted.

But, with the Blues behind at half-time, the decision was taken to introduce the 23-year-old. He made an impact, creating a Chelsea-high three chances during the second 45 minutes.

It was Palmer's neat pass that Joao Pedro took on before lashing the ball home to equalise, although the Brazilian did more of the heavy lifting for the goal!

Yet the pair have a good understanding on the pitch, something that has been evident from the get-go at the Club World Cup, and in the closing stages, they combined again for our winner.

Having taken a pass from Wesley Fofana and smuggled a pass to Fernandez, Palmer received the ball back from Joao Pedro and instantly knew what was required.

He took a touch to give the Brazilian time to break into the Napoli half and then weighted his pass perfectly, which enabled the Blues forward to take possession in his stride, go on to finish and win the game.

'I felt Cole’s performance was magnificent. Not just this quality, but his pressing and his running for the team,' Rosenior added after our victory.

‘He's had so many games over a long period of time [in the last two seasons], so we need to look after him, and I think the way that he's managed himself for the last two weeks has been magnificent.

‘Hopefully, we can now see the best of him now that he's fully fit.’