Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca lamented his team’s lack of consistency while explaining why the Blues would not “be there” in the Premier League title race.
Maresca’s side were stung by a stoppage-time winner as Sunderland emerged from Stamford Bridge with a 2–1 win on Saturday. The newly promoted visitors fell behind to a fourth-minute Alejandro Garnacho opener but managed to limit their hosts thereafter.
As Chelsea’s beleaguered head coach would admit, there was “a lack of creativity.” Sunderland equalised in the first half at a long throw through Wilson Isidor before snatching all three points in the 93rd minute courtesy of Chemsdine Talbi’s first goal for the club.
It was a particularly frustrating result—and performance—given the good form Chelsea carried into Saturday’s contest. The west London outfit thumped Ajax 5–1 in a record-shattering Champions League victory on Wednesday, racking up their fourth straight win on the spin.
Yet, in what has become a worrying pattern, Chelsea failed to maintain that form. “If you want to be there, you need consistency,” Maresca sighed postgame. “Winning four in a row and then today’s [result], it shows that.
“If we can have that level [Maresca lifted his hand towards the ceiling] and this level [dropped the same palm towards the floor], probably it’s better to have something in between, to be always in the same way.”
