Chelsea worse in 2 key categories than a year ago – title talk already proven to be foolish | OneFootball

As quickly as it began, it faded away again…

The pressure on Enzo Maresca to admit Chelsea were in the title race after an impressive, battling performance with ten men on Sunday night had finally grown to the point where he had to say there was a chance.

He was instantly made to look foolish. As Simon Johnson points out in his piece for the Athletic today, the answer to the question of whether we’re ready to challenge for the title was not what anyone was hoping.

“The nature of Chelsea’s dismal 3-1 defeat away to Leeds United provided more than enough evidence that they cannot match the pace Arsenal are setting.”

Weak, slow, timid Chelsea are worse in points than a year ago

Enzo Maresca looks in despair against Leeds. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

What was the nature of it? Weak, timid, slow. All of the same things we’ve seen too many times in the last few years. Somehow the same fearsome unit that bullied the Gunners despite being a man down looked cowed by the Elland Road atmosphere. They started badly and got worse. Their only saving grace was that, for once, they avoided a red card.

Johnson points out that Chelsea are 4 points worse off than this stage a year ago. They’ve scored fewer goals, too. The only good news is that, at this stage last season, things really collapsed. So we don’t have to do particularly well to be beating last year’s record when we get to the spring.

In other news…

Maresca wasn’t pulling any punches on the overall performance either, calmly admitting that Leeds were better in “every aspect” of the game and saying there was “nothing” Chelsea could take from the game.

Gary Neville was on Sky commentary duties for the game, and he slammed Chelsea as not good enough in three areas of the team, as well as criticising their general effort.