Chelsea lost further to newly promoted Sunderland at home, losing further ground in the race for Champions League qualification, but Paul Merson was less than impressed.
Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson was unhappy with Marc Giu’s anonymity during Chelsea’s home defeat to Sunderland on Saturday. The Spanish striker was recalled by manager Enzo Maresca in August following Liam Delap’s injury and was briefly on loan at Sunderland, but made little impact against the Black Cats.
Things looked good as Alejandro Garnacho’s goal gave Chelsea an early lead, but Wilson Isidore’s equalizer halted Chelsea’s momentum. Giu and his teammates struggled to find their footing in the second half, but the visitors snatched victory thanks to substitute Kemzuddin Talbi.
“I was very impressed with Sunderland today, but I wasn’t at Chelsea,” Merson said. “I thought they were going to struggle. They badly need Delap back and they need focus.
“Giu played up front and I think he touched the ball nine or 10 times. You can’t do that in a team that is supposed to dominate the ball.
“Chelsea ran out of ideas. They had winger after winger, but half of them couldn’t get past anyone. Joao Pedro looked lost as a number 10. They struggled and were pretty poor.”
read more: Alejandro Garnacho sends brutal warning to Manchester United after Ruben Amorim double callread more: Chelsea’s record-breaking 15-year-old moves closer to first-team chance compared to Jude Bellingham
Sunderland’s win was their fifth in nine games and was enough to move them up to second place in the Premier League table. However, Manchester City, Bournemouth and Liverpool could leapfrog them and fall out of the top four by the end of the weekend.
Chelsea have fallen to eighth place after the defeat and could fall further down the table by the end of the weekend. Crystal Palace and Aston Villa could both catch up with a win, while Everton could move level with the Blues on points if they beat Tottenham.
They return to action on Wednesday when they face Wolves in the Carabao Cup. The game could see Delap return to action after nearly two months out with a hamstring injury, and Chelsea will pick up as many points in Delap’s three league appearances as he did in the six he missed.
Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca was left disappointed with his team’s failure to build on a quick start against Sunderland. “Overall I don’t think we were good enough. Against any team in the Premier League, you know that the moment you drop a little bit you can lose points. That’s very difficult. Overall we weren’t good enough,” the Italian told Sky Sports.
“We got off to a good start by scoring a goal, but I still felt like we were losing in terms of physicality and second balls, which is always dangerous against this type of team.
“It’s always difficult. They bring seven or eight players in the box. We tried to prepare for that, but it can happen. We weren’t good enough. If we’re not good enough, we could drop points against anyone.”
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