Enzo Maresca faces difficult Chelsea conundrum ahead of Bournemouth trip after significant revelations

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Evening Standard

·6 December 2025

Enzo Maresca faces difficult Chelsea conundrum ahead of Bournemouth trip after significant revelations

Chelsea head coach has dished out a few home truths following the disappointing loss against Leeds

When a manager claims fitting all his players into the starting XI is a near-impossible task, it’s a good problem to have. Enzo Maresca revealing that having to rotate his team has been his “most difficult” challenge of the season is a rather starker admission.

It was only a week ago that Chelsea were being cautiously tipped as potential title contenders and possibly Arsenal’s closest challengers.

But a week is a long time in football, and for the players on the pitch at Elland Road, it will have felt as though Wednesday’s damaging 3-1 defeat to Leeds was never going to end.

Maresca’s side face Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium this afternoon, and the Italian was left dishing out home truths as he spoke to the media on Friday.

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The 45-year-old has the air of a man careful not to give too much away yet is open and frank when he wants to be.

He admitted he made a mistake in not starting Josh Acheampong against Leeds; asked bluntly and rhetorically, “Did Tosin [Adarabioyo] play well?”; and appeared to suggest he cannot always trust his squad players to maintain the high levels upheld by his more regular starters.

These were significant revelations from the Chelsea head coach, even if they were also patently true.

Maresca made five changes for Leeds, and it showed. Without the suspended Moises Caicedo and rested Reece James and Wesley Fofana, they sorely lacked intensity and were unable to stop Leeds flooding forward at ease.

Chelsea were far from their best at Elland Road

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On Friday, Maresca insisted he would be a “liar” if he claimed Andrey Santos can carry out Caicedo’s role as effectively as the Ecuadorian, or that Tosin is as good a player as Fofana. Again, brutal, but probably true.

Chelsea are playing about every three days at the moment during a relentless period of the season so resting players to maintain fitness is inevitable, yet Maresca will surely guard against unnecessary tinkering this afternoon, against a Bournemouth team who have fallen on hard times and lost four of their last five games so are similarly desperate for a victory to Leeds’s situation before Wednesday’s meeting.

James and Fofana could be reinstated to the starting line-up, and Cole Palmer may make his first start since September 20 following his return from injury, though won’t last 90 minutes.

Certainly, put out the same XI as he did against Leeds and Maresca would be running the risk of a repeat of Wednesday’s horror show. He admitted as much when drawing comparisons between the teams managed by Daniel Farke and Andoni Iraola.

“I think Bournemouth will be a similar game to Leeds,” Maresca explained. “That's why we need to be better. They are intense; Leeds were very intense. I think I said after the game that they were better than us in all the aspects.” Indeed he did. Indeed they were.

“Hopefully we can learn from that and be ready.”