Three months after Liam Rosenior replaced Enzo Maresca as Chelsea head coach, Sunday’s game against Manchester City presents the greatest opportunity so far for this team to prove that they have progressed under him — or to show the opposite.
On January 4, their first match after Maresca departed the club on New Year’s Day, Chelsea salvaged a 1-1 away draw with City, courtesy of a stoppage-time equaliser from Enzo Fernandez. That left them fifth in the table, three points behind fourth-placed Liverpool and ahead of Manchester United on goal difference.
Welcome as that result was, the match at the Etihad Stadium — played under interim boss Calum McFarlane, three days after the managerial departure and against a City side who had won eight of their previous 10 games in the Premier League — was effectively a free hit for Chelsea.
The reverse fixture this weekend is anything but.
Chelsea have had a full week off since their 7-0 thrashing of League One visitors Port Vale in the FA Cup quarter-finals and are one point outside the five Champions League places with seven games remaining. Rosenior has had three months to impart his ideas and prepare his squad for what they have always known will be a difficult end to the season.
So it feels like a good time to ask: do Chelsea go into this fixture a better team than they were in January?
Their league form is remarkably similar to what it was back at the turn of the year. In the 10 Premier League games before that trip to the Etihad, Chelsea earned 16 points (W4, D4, L2). They have taken 17 from their 10 top-flight matches under Rosenior (W5, D2, L3).
It is worth pointing out that Maresca’s departure was not solely, or even mostly, because of the team’s record, but the hope was certainly that Rosenior would iron out some of the issues that were causing Chelsea to drop points under his Italian predecessor.
The most glaring was discipline, as highlighted by the fact that Moises Caicedo sat out the trip to City serving a one-match suspension for accumulated yellow cards. Chelsea had five players sent off in the first 21 games of the Premier League season, before Rosenior took charge, and have had only two — in consecutive matches against Burnley and Arsenal — since. Their average fouls committed per 90 minutes in the league are also down slightly, from 11.5 to 9.9.
However, their yellow-card figures show that some bad habits are persisting. Chelsea have received 2.6 bookings per league game on average in 10 outings under Rosenior, versus 2.3 in the previous 21. On a per-match basis, there has been no drop-off in what we might deem ‘unnecessary’ bookings that were particularly frustrating for Chelsea, such as time-wasting or dissent.
Chelsea’s PL bookings per game
| Pre-Rosenior (MD1-21) | Under Rosenior (MD22-31) | |
|---|---|---|
|
Tactical foul |
0.76 |
0.9 |
|
Reckless offence |
0.67 |
0.4 |
|
Dissent/argument |
0.62 |
0.8 |
|
Time-wasting |
0.19 |
0.3 |
Caicedo has only narrowly avoided another suspension for this City game. He is on nine yellow cards for the season; if he is booked again tomorrow, he will miss the next two fixtures. If not, his slate will be wiped clean for the six remaining games.
Poor game-management has also persisted.
Chelsea had dropped 15 points in the Premier League from winning positions this season under Maresca. This problem appeared to have been addressed early in Rosenior’s tenure, but returned when the team “set fire” (in his words) to four points in successive home matches against Leeds United and their fellow relegation candidates Burnley, and most evidently when they imploded and conceded three goals late in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie away to Paris Saint-Germain, turning what was a draw into a 5-2 defeat.
To be fair to Rosenior, some of this continued indiscipline — both in terms of concentration and fouls — arguably reflects more on the decision-making of the players out on the pitch, and whether enough attention was paid to individuals’ temperaments in constructing this squad, than it does on his managerial acumen.
Moises Caicedo and Chelsea have continued to accumulate yellow cards at a high rate (Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)
There have also been reasons for positivity under Rosenior, particularly in how he has brought more out of certain players.
Joao Pedro’s improvement has given them a reliable focal point up front for the first time this season. Andrey Santos and Jorrel Hato have grown in stature and are now far more reliable deputies. But none of that has stopped Chelsea from looking stubbornly inconsistent. Their bad habits are still there, and they have struggled defensively. Their only clean sheet under Rosenior in the Premier League came in January. Under Maresca this season, they had kept eight.
The biggest test against City tomorrow — and the area where Chelsea are in most danger of looking as though they have regressed over these matches — will be of character.
Chelsea have been inconsistent all season, but have shown a capacity to turn up when they have a point to prove. As well as their wins against Barcelona and Liverpool, that reverse fixture at the Etihad was one example. McFarlane was without several regular starters that Sunday afternoon: as well as Caicedo’s ban, Wesley Fofana (ill) and Robert Sanchez (injury) were ruled out on the day of the match and Marc Cucurella was absent with a hamstring problem.
They played one of their toughest away matches of the season with no permanent manager and multiple key contributors absent, but returned to west London with a point. Part of that was due to City’s shortcomings, but it undoubtedly showed resilience on Chelsea’s part.
“The most impressive thing is probably the players,” McFarlane said after that game. “One-nil down at the Etihad, interim manager, players falling ill on the day of the game, the day before the game, all the change.
“For them to regroup and take that information on (from an interim coaching staff) and execute it speaks volumes about the characters we have at this club. Young players in those moments, they may crumble, but I thought they were exceptional in the second half.”
Chelsea showed character to fight back for a 1-1 draw away to Manchester City in January (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
Chelsea are also entering this game against City with key players missing, considerable noise surrounding the club, and a point to prove.
Fernandez, scorer of that late equaliser at the Etihad, is serving a two-match club suspension for comments that cast doubt on his future at Stamford Bridge. Trevoh Chalobah and Reece James are injured. The team’s credentials as potential Champions League qualifiers are under serious scrutiny.
Will they be able to rise to the occasion as they did in that reverse fixture three months ago?
The 4-1 win at fellow Champions League hopefuls Aston Villa in early March gives cause for optimism — but the manner of their subsequent 8-2 aggregate defeat against PSG does not. Nor do the three losses to title-race leaders Arsenal in as many games across the Premier League and Carabao Cup since the turn of the year, though the first of those was only Rosenior’s second match in charge.
The off-pitch noise, availability problems, and on-pitch habits troubling Chelsea when they last faced City are still lurking.
The most important takeaway from Sunday’s match will be whether, in spite of those issues, the ability to turn up when they have something to prove remains.
