Chelsea struggled mightily over 90 minutes at Elland Road, falling to Leeds United in a sloppy, mistake-riddled affair against their newly-promoted hosts.
MORE — Leeds vs Chelsea recap, video highlights
Chelsea trailed 2-0 when Pedro Neto pulled the Blues within one, but even the re-introduction of Cole Palmer couldn’t help deliver an equalizer.
Instead the Blues slipped nine points behind leaders Arsenal.
Enzo Maresca had just seen his men overcome a red card to draw those Gunners at the weekend, but the subject of that red card turned out to be a huge deal as Moises Caicedo’s suspension was an obvious problem for Chelsea.
Enzo Maresca reaction — Chelsea boss speaks after mistake-riddled loss at Leeds
That game went poorly: “Absolutely, very poor night. They were better than us in every aspect. Will try to analyze and learn from this game and focus on the next one.”
You had a lot of the ball but were down 2-0: “It’s not about possession. Possession, you need the purpose. Today they were better than us in every aspect and deserved to win. Congratulations to them.”
“After the goal we scored, we had 1-2 chances very clear with Cole, with Joao, but the third goal completely killed the game. It’s much more difficult.”
Chelsea were great vs Barca and Arsenal, but struggle at Leeds. Why? “It’s reality. The Premier League, you need to perform every game, no matter when you’re at home, away, no matter the other team. It’s important to see where we’re going to be February, March and then decide.”
“When you play against Barcelona and Arsenal, you expect better performance tonight. But it is not always going to be possible. We have some players that it is not possible to play every two or three days. Reece, Wes, these kind of players, but we can’t use them every game.”
What can you learn about your team from tonight? “There is nothing that we can take from this game. We can only review and analyze what we did, and see what we need to do to improve.”
Even Leeds would say Chelsea have much more quality than them, so what went wrong? “You don’t win games just with quality. You need more things. Today they were better than us.”
Was it a lack of focus? “No focus, no concentration. On the ball, off the ball, duels, second balls. All the aspects they were better than us. Now focus on the next one.”
The second and third Leeds goals felt avoidable: “The first one, too easy. The second one, we lost the ball. The third goal killed the game.”
“Even if we make a chance, you have to perform 100%. If you don’t do that, you’ll struggle to get points on any pitch against any team. …. If we don’t compete, all the players 100%, I we’re not 100% you struggle against any team.”
