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Enzo Maresca could see why it happened. It was last Wednesday, most of his Chelsea players were away with their national teams and the manager had only seven or eight to work with in Cobham. There was no club game on the immediate horizon. And so the level of the training was poor.
It was noticeable, for example, when Maresca oversaw a match between his players and those from the academy, even if he had to borrow a few youngsters to make up the numbers on his team, who slumped to defeat.
Still, there could be no excuses for this kind of coasting and Maresca moved to make a statement, one he hoped would reverberate with the wider squad and set the tone for the Premier League run-in, which begins with the visit of Tottenham to Stamford Bridge on Thursday night. The seven or eight first-teamers were due to have the following day off. Maresca cancelled that and ordered them back in.
“Absolutely, yes,” Maresca said, when asked whether the message had been that the standards needed to be sky-high every time. “The day after, they were completely aware of the standards of the day before. We had a normal session. It was not about punishment, making them run. Everyone was here, laughing. OK.
“In terms of high standards, I think it was not the right one [last Wednesday]. So we took the decision the day after to work. And probably the reason why was [there were] not high standards. It was because you don’t have official games, you have seven to eight players training. The day after is off so you are thinking: ‘It’s already off.’ But it’s not off. Tomorrow is off. Not today. You have to do the right job. When we are here, we need high standards.”
It is easy to imagine how Maresca’s decision went down with the players, although he insisted they were fine about it. Absolutely. Nothing to see there. “They understand, they were completely aware,” Maresca said. “You know, Tosin [Adarabioyo] was here and he is one of the leaders. And the day after, he was completely good, he was completely fine. We want to work.”
No excuses. It is the mantra of the perfectionist and it resonates with particular force for Maresca now his injured stars are back. There is frustration that the luckless Roméo Lavia is out again, having picked up what Maresca called a “small problem”. More broadly, Cole Palmer, Noni Madueke and Nicolas Jackson are available, Palmer after a minor muscle issue that ruled him out of the defeat at Arsenal on 16 March and England’s subsequent internationals; Madueke and Jackson after lay-offs of about two months. Maresca said all three were OK to start against Spurs.
“We said many times that in the end it’s a game for players and when they are not there for different reasons, you struggle,” Maresca said. “This is exactly what happened with us this season where we had five unbelievable months and then six or seven injuries in a row and we lost something. It’s good now to finish with a lot of them.”
When Maresca’s team won 4-3 at Spurs on 8 December, they were riding high in second place, being talked about as dark horses for the title. The performance that night was driven by Palmer, who was close to unplayable. Jadon Sancho was also excellent and contributed his second goal of the season. He had six assists in all competitions at that point.
Chelsea have lost more than they have won in the league since then and Maresca has felt the heat for how his team have played, the quick and direct football of the first half of the season fading away. Sancho has not scored since, supplying only one more assist and some of his other numbers have made for dismal reading, taking in the one about him having had only two shots on target.
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It has emerged that Chelsea have the option to get out of their obligation to make Sancho’s loan from Manchester United permanent at the end of the season – albeit that would cost them £5m.
“In terms of our wingers, we arrive there [in promising positions] many, many times,” Maresca said. “Then it is up to them if they want to cross, go one v one … if they want to shoot. Probably, Jadon could shoot much more. That is something we have invited many times. Hopefully, he is going to shoot more from now on. For us, it’s important to arrive there, with Jadon, with Noni, with Pedro [Neto], with Tyrique [George]. And from there to create chances.”
Maresca has been frustrated by deep-sitting opponents at Stamford Bridge in the past four league games, saying that Leicester, Southampton, West Ham and Wolves each had “11 players behind the ball, almost at the edge of the box. It’s impossible to attack quick against them. There is no space to attack in behind.”
It should be easier against Spurs, who look to hold a high defensive line under Ange Postecoglou and to carry the fight. Saying that, Chelsea did win all four of those home matches and as any manager will tell you, it is a results-first business.
Chelsea have nine league games to go and Maresca has done the sums. “If you are able to win six then you will be in the Champions League,” he said. Now to tick one of them off against Spurs.
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