Two Maresca decisions in one game that may have saved Chelsea season | OneFootball

Tom Coley has written a piece for Football.London today where he notes how significant Enzo Maresca’s “technical decision” to drop Christopher Nkunku for the game against Fulham last months was.

Maresca drops Nkunku – and not a moment too late

With the Frenchman finally out, Tyrique George was the only replacement for Nicolas Jackson on the bench. The academy kid scored an equaliser in the 83rd minute, and Chelsea then went on to win.

The pressure had been overwhelming at that point. Lose (or even draw) at Craven Cottage and belief would have dried up entirely. The rising frustration from fans would have reached boiling point. It’s hard to see us getting the subsequent massive wins over Everton and Liverpool without the confidence earned from turning the Fulham game around, so as Coley puts it, “Maresca’s bold call to drop Nkunku [was] a sliding door for Chelsea.”

Another Maresca decision that shaped season

Trevoh Chalobah and Levi Colwill in a montage. (Photo by Harry Murphy/Getty Images)

That was indeed a crucial moment. We would also point to another decision made in that Fulham game that has helped us on this run.

Weeks after we begged him to stick with a Levi Colwill – Trevoh Chalobah central defensive partnership in the league and a Tosin Adarabioyo – Benoit Badiashile duo in the Conference League, Maresca was still twiddling things around, with Chalobah often switched to right back.

Finally in that Fulham game, Maresca went with the academy pair. They have kept their place in every league game since, and we’ve won each of them. It’s no coincidence that that more settled partnership ahead of him has seen the most composed version of Robert Sanchez we’ve seen all season.

We may indeed look back on that late April game as the match which changed it all, for this season and beyond.