Enzo Maresca has shared his feelings after his team’s 2024 ended in the worst way possible – with a 2-0 loss to Ipswich Town on 30 December 2024.
The Blues had a great November and rose up to second in the Premier League table with performances that many believed are worthy of title contenders. However, they continued to deny this in the online and offline media, with Maresca himself even coming out to state that his team are not ready to be called title contenders.
His media statements – which were seen as a tactic to shift the media focus away from his team – now look to be true as the team have fallen in the last three games, culminating with the loss to the newly promoted Ipswich Town.
The loss was dealt by Liam Delap and Omari Hutchinson, who was sold by the club to Ipswich in the summer as part of their clear out in order to fix their books and make space for new acquisitions. Maresca, who made the weird decision to start Nicolas Jackson on the bench, was surprised at the outcome, calling it a strange game while admitting that teams have to go through days like these.
“It was a bit of a strange game. We created so many chances in the first half and in the first five or 10 minutes of the second half, we had two clear chances; the header from Joao [Felix] and another shot,” Maresca began.
“Then I think the second goal killed the game a little bit. Sometimes when you create so many chances, the post, the VAR, the ‘keeper saves or the defenders that block the shot, sometimes it has to go in that way.
“It’s a shame because it was another chance for us but congratulations to them because probably when you save so many shots on the line, the goalkeeper, the body, the desire from them was very high.”
This was their second-straight loss under Maresca which, in itself, is an achievement for the Italian whose managerial credentials to handle a big club like Chelsea in their transition phase were called into question earlier in the season. Maresca felt that it was just one of those nights you can have in football.
He said, “No, tonight’s game, I don’t think it’s physical or condition. When you play and you don’t create chances, you don’t create nothing, and you are not dangerous, then you can say we probably we struggled physically, we are not good enough, or we are not fresh.
“But when you create so many chances, the post, the amount of chances, the VAR; I think we have so many chances in the first half. In the second half, we started in the same way. We have two clear chances and then the second goal kills the game. It is just a matter that sometimes it is not the right day for us.”
