Why Chelsea defeat at Leeds should frighten Enzo Maresca | OneFootball

Bad night at Elland Road highlights major concern for Blues

Whether the second part of that statement stands the test of time remains to be seen, but it is hard to disagree with the first.

Yet Chelsea were missing a key ingredient from their best performances this season as they fell to a bitter defeat to Farke’s newly-promoted men and dropped to fourth in the table. They were missing Moises Caicedo.

The 24-year-old sat out the first of the three Premier League games he will miss for his red card against Arsenal, and without his hustle and bustle and bite in midfield, Chelsea were miles off living up to Farke’s billing. Perhaps this was the reality right now laid bare - that when they cannot call on Caicedo, the whole machine starts to falter and Chelsea malfunction.

Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea struggled without Moises Caicedo

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They certainly appeared out of order at Elland Road. It was a shirking of basic defensive responsibility to allow Jaka Bijol to peel away and head in the opener. And it was an unsightly and costly individual error from Tosin Adarabioyo for the third goal that killed the game.

But Chelsea’s casual nature is what really lost them the match. While mistakes can and do happen, Chelsea looked incapable of raising their intensity to match Leeds, and Pedro Neto’s close-range finish shortly after his introduction from the bench was one of a measly two shots on targets the Blues tallied all evening.

It was a night and day contrast to having Caicedo charging at opposition players and dropping in to provide that pivotal midfield link for Chelsea’s centre-backs.

They have now won just 25 per cent of league matches the Ecuadorian has not started since his £115million move from Brighton in the summer of 2023. That win rate is 52 per cent when he has started, too big a disparity to simply be a coincidence.

And Chelsea won just 66.7 per cent of the tackles they attempted, Leeds 78.9 per cent of theirs. Again, it is hard to see how Chelsea’s success rate would not have been far higher with Caicedo.

Enzo Fernandez put in his most ineffectual performance of what has been a fantastic season individually so far, and it was his lax approach on the ball that saw Leeds dispossess him and immediately double their first-half lead through Ao Tanaka’s stellar drive from range.

Next to Fernandez, Andrey Santos came into midfield with Dario Essugo having suffered a setback on Monday and been ruled out of the games Caicedo misses.

Santos played safe, rotated the ball well enough, but neither he nor Fernandez could contain Leeds when they tore away on the counter, and Chelsea’s ability to cover ground off the ball was wholly reduced by not having Caicedo around.

Chelsea were blown away at Elland Road

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“On the ball, off the ball, towards second ball, they were much better than us in all the aspects,” Enzo Maresca lamented afterwards. “I think we missed Moi. Moi is a player that for us is important [and would be] for any team in the world, because he's top.”

Maresca went flying down the tunnel as soon as three minutes of first-half stoppage time had been called, to plan what needed to be a rousing dressing-room speech. At half-time he introduced Neto, who soon scored, and Malo Gusto, bringing off Benoit Badiashile and Estevao Willian, who was on a yellow card and Maresca feared might see red.

But those changes, and the later introduction of Alejandro Garnacho and Cole Palmer on his long-awaited return, were not sufficient to turn the tide for Chelsea.

The man they most needed, Caicedo, could not be called upon, and still cannot when they head to the south coast to face Bournemouth on Saturday. Perhaps it should frighten Maresca even more that he will not have his defensive midfield extraordinaire to stop the swift attacking transitions of Antoine Semenyo, Eli Junior Kroupi and Justin Kluivert at the Vitality Stadium.

Maresca rested Reece James against Leeds, and after his all-action display in the 1-1 draw with Arsenal, he must be minded to re-call the right-back into midfield again.

Perhaps Santos and Fernandez simply endured off-days and will bounce back against Bournemouth. Maresca said he hopes this was just a bad night for Chelsea, that none of his players played at “their level, their best level”.

Even if this was just a blip, it illustrated the vital importance of Caicedo to the whole operation. Sometimes your best games are the ones you do not play.