Chelsea now face an actual uphill battle in the event that they wish to qualify for the final 16 of the Champions League after final night time.
The Blues obtained beat 2-1 by Atalanta, with head coach Enzo Maresca getting some massive criticism for his subs that he made within the sport, many attributing this to the primary motive why they misplaced the sport.
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EXCLUSIVE! Chelsea have THREE Premier League centre midfielders on the radar – two they’d LOVE to signal!
At one level, Maresca had THREE full backs enjoying in centre midfield, once you depend Marc Cucurella enjoying the annoying inverted full again position – principally a centre midfielder in possession. But Andrey Santos was an unused sub.
Additionally, when Wesley Fofana obtained injured, as an alternative of placing Josh Acheampong at centre again and utilizing one of many two different proper backs he had on the pitch, he took Fofana off and put Tosin Adarabioyo on, who has been terrible in latest video games.
Even nonetheless, Maresca has defended his choices and the subs he made, in his post-match interview. Insanity.
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Joe Cole was sad with the defeat in for TNT Sports activities and as soon as once more highlighted the shortage of expertise being a giant challenge at this membership, which is genuinely is and has been for years.
Acquainted faces
As issues at present stand, Chelsea are eleventh within the league stage of the UCL however may slip additional down the desk relying on outcomes elsewhere at present.
16 factors might be sufficient for a high eight end to routinely qualify for the final 16, so Chelsea should beat Pafos and Napoli to have any likelihood of this.
If they don’t get automated qualification they may face enjoying two further video games within the playoffs to attempt to get there, and no membership needs an additional video games proper now.
They may even have David Luiz and Antonio Conte stood in our method! Luiz at present performs for Pafos, and Conte is the Napoli supervisor! Yikes.