Enzo Maresca has made it abundantly clear that he analyses performances rather than results. What to make of this, then?
First, the facts. Chelsea are up and running in the Conference League, victorious to the tune of a 4-2 victory over Gent in their group-stage opener. They undoubtedly deserved to win.
This was a strange, scratchy sort of night, though. Twice the Belgians scored against the run of play just when Chelsea were threatening to run away with things at Stamford Bridge.
The Blues spent more on transfers than the competition’s other 35 teams combined this summer. Panathinaikos are now their toughest remaining test, with Gent out the way. Make no mistake, Chelsea should be winning this tournament in Wroclaw in June.
But Maresca’s second-string XI must learn each other’s games better if they are to do so. For the meantime, though, the results (if not the performances) just keep on coming. The Premier League’s most in-form club have five straight wins in all competitions.
There was an obvious gulf in class between the two sides right from the off here — Chelsea will get used to that in this competition — but also a sense of patience from the hosts. Centre-backs Benoit Badiashile and Tosin Adarabioyo did not force the issue, instead picking simple passes in the knowledge Chelsea should prove too good for Gent in the end.
And they did, yet there will be much more comfortable nights, more joined-up performances, on this Conference League journey for Chelsea. If there aren’t, they simply aren’t going to win it.
Chelsea’s periods of attacking synchronicity came and went. There was real fluidity in the middle of the park midway through the first half, with Mykhailo Mudryk, Christopher Nkunku and Joao Felix interchanging their positions and combining to good effect.
But Gent were all too easily back in the game. Yes, when they scored at both ends of the second half, but also after the flowing move for the opening goal when Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s no-look pass set Mudryk free to cross onto the head of Renato Veiga to score. Rather than open the floodgates, it proved the only moment of crystalline quality in the first half, which Gent grew in to.
Chelsea looked at times like a group of players brought in to fulfil this match alone, which is exactly what they were in a sense. For the moment, these are Maresca’s cup players. As he said on Wednesday, they must perform consistently if they’re to break into his Premier League XI.
Though none made a serious case to start against Nottingham Forest on Sunday, some did push their cause for more minutes in the matches that matter. One was Pedro Neto, scorer of a fine volley 39 seconds into the second half which would have set them on their way, but for Gent’s obstinacy.
Instead, Maresca will be rewinding the tape on Friday to work out how his defence left three Gent attackers unmarked from a set-piece which ultimately allowed Tsuyoshi Watanabe a free header.
For a few moments, Gent threatened to equalise, but then came the assurance goals to slow Maresca’s heartbeat a little. Christopher Nkunku fired through the bodies for 3-1. Dewsbury-Hall seized on a loose ball and made it four.
The fact Gent had the final say in terms of goals served to show that Maresca’s reserves still have gears to find.
