Maresca Delivers Stern Verdict on Chelsea After Leeds Defeat and Credits Only Two Players

Enzo Maresca admitted his Chelsea side fell well short of the required standard in Wednesday night’s 3–1 defeat to Leeds United at Elland Road, offering a blunt assessment of a performance he described as lacking in almost every department.

The Blues were behind inside six minutes when Jaka Bijol headed home from a corner, and Leeds doubled their advantage before the interval through Ao Tanaka’s superb driven strike. Pedro Neto halved the deficit shortly after the restart, but a costly defensive lapse allowed Dominic Calvert-Lewin to restore Leeds’ two-goal cushion with 20 minutes left.

Chelsea delivered an uncharacteristically poor display, and Maresca conceded that his side fully deserved to leave empty-handed. He praised Leeds’ intensity and singled out only two Chelsea players — Pedro Neto and Alejandro Garnacho — for emerging with any credit.

“They were better than us in all aspects and they deserved to win the game,” said Maresca. “There is nothing we can take from this performance. The only thing we can do is try to understand the mistakes we made, reset, and move forward because we have another game on Saturday.”

Reflecting on the individual contributions, he added:
“No-one was at his best level tonight. Pedro in the second half, Garna [Alejandro Garnacho] in the second half — probably they were our best players. After we scored we had two big chances through Cole [Palmer] and João [Pedro], but the third goal killed the game.”

The Italian admitted he hoped this was merely a rare off-night, describing the performance as one that offered almost nothing positive to build upon.

“It’s a game where you struggle to find anything you can take from it. On the ball, off the ball, duels, second balls — they were much better than us in every area,” he said.

Maresca warned his players about the dangers of inconsistency, emphasising that high-level performances against sides such as Arsenal and Barcelona do not guarantee results against so-called lesser opposition.

“The level cannot always be the same for different reasons,” he said. “Home or away, against any team, if you don’t perform at 100 per cent, the Premier League is tough. When you play the way we did against Barcelona and Arsenal, you expect a better performance — no doubt.
But just because we have played so well over the last month does not mean we are always going to perform in the same way.”

He added that squad rotation plays a significant role in performance levels.
“We have players who cannot play every two or three days. When you change players, the level drops — that is the reality. They are important players for us and would be important for any team.”

Chelsea remain fourth in the Premier League, though they now sit three points behind in-form Aston Villa in third. The Blues travel to the South Coast on Saturday to face Bournemouth before heading to Italy for an away Champions League fixture against Atalanta.