Maresca must beat Chelsea on 4/10 after making ‘wrong decisions’

The tumultuous nature of Chelsea’s season was on full display at the weekend.

Enzo Maresca’s side traveled to St James’ Park to face Newcastle United in their final Premier League game of the season, but lost 2-0 in the first half.

Now, the team deserves credit for fighting back in the 45th minute of the second half to make it 2-2, but overall it was a disappointing performance for the Blues, with the team dropping points for the ninth time this year in the league alone.

It was a dominant performance from all over the pitch for Chelsea, but one player was particularly frustrating and will likely lose his place in the squad.

Chelsea’s poor performance vs Newcastle

Unfortunately, when it comes to the first half, you could make a legitimate argument that every Chelsea player should be featured here.

However, some players were more disappointing than others, such as Maro Gusto and Wesley Fofana.

Usually two of the club’s best defenders, the pair were partly responsible for the hosts’ first goal, with the centre-back losing the ball and the right-back losing the cross.

Moving to the center of the park, it was a game to remember for Cole Palmer.

The Englishman is usually a great player, but he was so far off the pace against the Magpies that his statistics are unpleasant.

For example, in 79 minutes of playing time, he had only 0.05 expected goals and assists, played one important pass, had a pass success rate of only 78%, failed to take a shot on target, lost the ball 15 times, failed 100% of his dribbles, and lost 5 of his 8 duels.

Finally, it wasn’t a great match for Pedro Neto either.

Portugal were clearly trying to make something happen, but the game ended without them creating any big chances.

However, that being said, we had another arguably worst starter for Chelsea and will likely be dropped for next weekend as a result.

Chelsea star to be dropped

Now, an argument could be made for other Chelsea players to take this position as well, such as Trevor Chalobah and Moises Caicedo.

But at the end of the day, it was Alejandro Garnacho who had the most frustrating and disappointing performance from the Blues’ point of view.

The former Manchester United star deservedly deserved a starting place after scoring twice against Cardiff City in the League Cup, but he didn’t look too dangerous against Thun.

In fact, in the words of content creator Frank Khalid, he “kept making bad decisions” whenever he was in a dangerous situation or had a chance to make something happen.

Football.london’s Bobby Vincent was also unimpressed with the Argentine, giving him a full-time rating of 4/10.

That may sound harsh, but the winger’s statistics more than justify that assessment.

In 95 minutes, he had five shots but only one went on target, had 52 touches but lost the ball 16 times, lost 50% of his duels, missed 100% of his crosses, and had only 0.07 expected assists.

In the end, Garnacho’s performance was really poor and he will probably be left out of Chelsea’s lineup for the next game.