Chelsea started the new season unbeaten in their first three games. But the Blues have now won just one of their past four matches.
It looked like it was going to be a smooth start for Enzo Maresca’s men in the 2025-26 season following their Fifa Club World Cup success in July.
A goalless draw against Crystal Palace on opening weekend of the Premier League isn’t all that bad, with the Eagles unbeaten for what seems like forever now. But wins over West Ham United and Fulham followed and gave the Blues a safe start, with seven points and just one goal conceded.
After the international break, however, things haven’t quite been the same. Chelsea have looked clumsy at the back, conceding at least two goals in three consecutive matches against Brentford, Bayern Munich and Manchester United.
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In this article, we’ll cover
Individual errors have been burying Chelsea
It’s hard to start anywhere else. Chelsea have been shooting themselves on the foot with the growing number of individual errors lately.
A team that likes to dominate possession and play from the back is prone to making mistakes here and there. It’s part of the game and a risk that a lot of managers – including Maresca – will gladly take.
The Blues made two errors that led to opponent’s shots in their first three games: one against Palace and one against Fulham.
Though the 0.67 per game average is worrying, it’s nothing compared to what they’ve managed lately: six mistakes that ended in a shot by the opposition in the last four (1.5 per match). Two each against Bayern, Man Utd and Lincoln City. They trailed against the latter in the Carabao Cup, a League One opponent.
That number ranks first among 96 teams in Europe’s top five leagues across all competitions since the start of September.
| Chelsea Stats | First three games | Last four games |
|---|---|---|
| Errors led to shots (inc. goals) | 2 | 6 |
| Errors led to goals | 0 | 3 |
And this stat doesn’t even include Robert Sanchez’s red card at Old Trafford, Moises Caicedo’s penalty or Trevoh Chalobah’s own goal at Allianz Arena.
A lot of what has troubled Chelsea lately could simply cease to exist if they just cut down the part of the game in which they gift-wrap their opponents goals or great advantages. There are ways to compensate tactical flaws, but not being one man down from the 5th minute onwards.
Key stats:
- 6 errors that led to shots
- 1 penalty conceded
- 1 red card
Manipulation of Enzo Maresca’s man-to-man coverage
One of those “flaws” — that, again, are a risk that Maresca looks comfortable taking — is his man-to-man pressing. Especially with the centre-backs.
Their aggressive coverage sees them chasing opposing forwards for long distances instead of stopping at a certain point to maintain the defensive shape. It’s a high-risk, high-reward strategy that can lead to glory or come back to bite them.
Unfortunately for the Blues, Vincent Kompany played them like puppets with this. He used a very technical No.9 who likes dropping deep (Harry Kane) to his advantage and dragged Chelsea defenders out of the final third repeatedly, sending even his full-back (Konrad Laimer) on diagonal runs to enter the space left behind.
It’s also something that Brentford tried to attack quite often but with long balls instead of short combinations and runs. They scored the opener like this through Kevin Schade but had already ‘rehearsed’ a very similar play just five minutes into the game.
Time and again, Maresca’s centre-backs found themselves in some sort of disadvantage (numerical, qualitative, positional, etc).
It also enables opponents to either stretch the central defenders or separate them from the full-backs. At the same time, it invites a lot of danger from crosses into the far post.
Their disorganized defensive shape due to long chases end up hurting them in transition as well. Brentford and Jordan Henderson had a field day playing long and direct passes over the top looking for Schade and Igor Thiago.
Key stats (since the return from the international break):
- 3.0 big chances conceded per match (Ranked #1 among all PL teams)
- 2.0 goals conceded per match (Ranked #3 among all PL teams)
- 1.8 xG conceded per match (Ranked #3 among all PL teams)
Set pieces
Bayern Munich didn’t rely heavily on this, but Brentford and Man Utd hurt Chelsea a lot on set pieces. Both teams actually scored in similar fashion: a header into the back post with nobody on the finisher (Casemiro for the Red Devils and Fabio Carvalho for the Bees).
It’s also shocking to see how many defenders were ball-watching instead of finding an opponent to mark. Five Chelsea players against three from Brentford around the ball and five against two from Man Utd, with Benjamin Sesko and Casemiro completely free. Terrible awareness from the Blues’ defence.
These are all important things for Enzo Maresca to clean up as Chelsea try to regain their form from a couple of months ago. It’s worth keeping an eye on all of this since their only truly convincing performance this season was against a sorry and struggling West Ham.