Maresca went against our advice after Spurs win: Chelsea have paid the price | OneFootball

Chelsea’s best result in recent months was beating Spurs 1-0.

After that game, we wrote an article which made one thing very clear – the time for rotation was over in the back line. That was the day where Wesley Fofana was left out of the squad and we later found out he was done for the season.

From that point onwards, we said that it should be very simple – the central defensive pair that kept a clean sheet in that game (Levi Colwill and Trevoh Chalobah) should be the league starting pair every week. They kept Spurs’ attackers quiet, and looked like our best pairing in the squad.

After a season of constant disruption at the back, with injuries and Enzo Maresca’s love of tinkering around meaning we’ve never had a consistent pair, it was time to help out our defence by creating a settled partnership.

Instead, the chaos has continued. In our next game it was Tosin Adarabioyo and Chalobah lining up at centre back, with Reece James at left back and Malo Gusto at right back.

Then, against Ipswich last weekend, we saw Levi Colwill and Tosin in the middle, with Chalobah at right back and Marc Cucurella at left back.

Rather than settle on one setup, Maresca scrambled things more than ever.

Maresca may have left it too late to create settled defence

Mikel Arteta and Enzo Maresca on the touchline at Stamford Bridge. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

In midweek against Legia Warsaw it was Tosin and Benoit Badiashile starting. We desperately hope that means we will finally return to the Chalobah – Colwill combination at the back again. It may be too late to save our season after dropped points in our last two games, but it should at least stop a total collapse in this final run to the end of the Premier League season.