Chelsea suffered a disappointing defeat to Leeds United on Wednesday evening and Enzo Maresca admitted the Blues were second best at Elland Road, learning a painful lesson on how unforgiving the Premier League can be if your performance drops.
We fell behind early on to Jaka Bijol’s header from a corner and found ourselves two goals down by half-time when Ao Tanaka fired in Leeds’ second from outside the box.
Half-time substitute Pedro Neto gave us hope of a fightback by reducing the deficit, but then Dominic Calvert-Lewin scrambled home to end our chances and make the final score 3-1, leaving Maresca with little consolation to find on this away trip to Yorkshire.
‘They were better than us in all the aspects and they deserved to win the game,’ admitted our head coach. ‘There is nothing we can take from this game. The only thing we can do is try to understand the mistakes we have made, try to reset, because on Saturday we have another game.
‘In tonight’s game there was no-one that was at his best level. Pedro second half, Garna [Alejandro Garnacho] second half, probably they were our best players, because after we scored the goal we had two chances with Cole [Palmer] and Joao [Pedro]. Then the third goal killed the game.
‘I hope that we had a bad night because it’s a game that you struggle to find something that you can take from the game. On the ball, off the ball, duels, second balls – they were much better than us in all the aspects.’
The result was especially disappointing given our good form in recent weeks, going seven games unbeaten across all competitions and particularly impressing in the last two matches, beating Barcelona 3-0 before fighting with 10 men to draw 1-1 with Premier League leaders Arsenal.
‘For sure for different reasons the level is not going to be always the same. Home or away against any team, if you don’t perform 100 per cent, the Premier League is tough,’ he continued.
‘When you play the way we did in the last two games against Barcelona and Arsenal, you expect a better performance, no doubt. But because we perform so well against Arsenal and Barcelona and over the last month, that does not mean that we are going to perform always in the same way.
‘For different reasons it is not possible, because of the situations you have to manage. We have players that it is not possible for them to play every two or three days. When you change players, the level drops, that is the reality because they are important players for us and would be important players for any team.’