Why Enzo Maresca is wrong about Chelsea's biggest problem

There is no ignoring that the Blues have a serious issue to address

Your matchday briefing on Chelsea , featuring team news and expert analysis from Dom Smith

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Chelsea are in a good place ahead of welcoming Ajax to Stamford Bridge.

The Blues have won three consecutive games for the first time since the Club World Cup and deserved, on balance, maximum points from each of them, with controlled performances against Benfica, Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.

But there remain kinks to their game that Chelsea must iron out — and one particular trend they must kill off entirely: ill discipline.

Chelsea come into the game having received red cards in five of their last six matches, a feat that sits somewhere on the plane between almost impressive and extremely poor.

A run that began with goalkeeper Robert Sanchez’s early dismissal at Old Trafford in the September defeat to Manchester United has been extended by red cards for Trevoh Chalobah against Brighton, Joao Pedro against Benfica, the head coach, Enzo Maresca , against Liverpool, and most recently Malo Gusto on Saturday against Nottingham Forest.

While such regular red cards are patently unsustainable if Chelsea are to go far in the Champions League and finish in the top four this season, as is their target, manager Enzo Maresca and Tosin Adarabioyo were in agreement when they spoke about the Blues’ indiscipline on Tuesday.

Maresca is not concerned that Chelsea have a major disciplinary issue they must solve

Joao Pedro is suspended on Wednesday because of his sending-off against Benfica, which came in the form of a 96th-minute second yellow card. Maresca was reminded that almost every game of late, one of his players (or the head coach himself) is serving a suspension.

“For sure, it's something that we can do better,” he admitted. But, like Tosin, he is not concerned that Chelsea have a major disciplinary issue they must solve.

“I think some of the red cards, we will avoid that. For instance, the last one [for Gusto], I think that one is completely avoidable, because it's 0-3, the game is finished.

“When you concede five red cards, for sure there is something that we have to improve.”

Tosin, who at Forest became the first player aged 28 or over to represent Maresca’s Chelsea , said: “I wouldn’t say it’s a problem. If you look at all the incidents, they’re all very different and have all come at different times in the games. It’s not ideal, but it’s something that we’re not worried about and something that won’t continue.

“They’ve been incidental moments. If you look at the last one, it was just a slightly mistimed tackle. He [Gusto] tried his best to get to the ball. He didn’t manage to do so, so it was just one of those moments.”

Tosin and his manager were right in pointing out that these red cards have not been for egregious studs-up challenges or cynical fouls. Sanchez and Chalobah were deemed to have denied clear goalscoring opportunities; Joao Pedro, Gusto and Maresca were shown second yellow cards.

Joao Pedro misses out tonight due to suspension

Action Images via Reuters

But those second bookable offences all came in stoppage time, at points in a game when Chelsea needed to be applying their game management and a bit of know-how, not making life difficult for themselves by handing a numerical advantage to the opposition for free.

Do Chelsea have a serious discipline problem, then? Well, not in the sense that their players commit heinous fouls. But are they regularly being shown red and yellow cards? Yes.

Only Brighton, Bournemouth and Everton have been shown more yellow cards in the Premier League this season than the 19 received by Chelsea . No other club has had more than one red card in the league. Chelsea , including Maresca’s, have four.

Maresca is not lenient with the Chelsea players but believes a red card is punishment enough. “I have four kids — when they do something wrong, I do not punish them,” he said in a press conference on Tuesday afternoon. “I try to teach them to do the right things. I try to do this with the players too.”

But he is, let's remember, one of the five men who received one of Chelsea’s red cards, leaving his technical area to celebrate Estevao Willian’s stoppage-time winner against Liverpool, and promptly being shown a second yellow card — and an £8,000 fine.

Starting against an Ajax team who are not what they once were and are entirely beatable, Chelsea must stamp out their indiscipline, or risk it costing them far more than Maresca had to pay.