Two substitutions after seven minutes, a third after 21 minutes: Chelsea FC unwittingly made history against Manchester United. What prompted coach Enzo Maresca to make these changes?
Enzo Maresca didn’t quite match Robbie Savage, but he came close. The always controversial former Welsh international caused a stir as coach of fifth-tier Forest Green Rovers in the National League Cup on Tuesday when he substituted four players in the first minute against Wolverhampton Wanderers’ U21s. The reason: for reasons of competitive integrity, the cup stipulates that at least four players who started in the previous league game must be in the starting lineup, but not for how long.
But what happened at Chelsea on Saturday was no less spectacular. Maresca made substitutions in the 6th, 7th, and 21st minutes of the away game at Manchester United, making the earliest three substitutions in Premier League history—and only one of them was due to injury.
Why Estevao and Pedro Neto were only allowed to play for a few minutes
In fact, the Blues got off to a disastrous start at Old Trafford. Robert Sanchez, who was more prone to mistakes than almost any other keeper in the league last season, brought down Bryan Mbeumo in front of his penalty area after just four minutes and was shown a red card. It was clear that Maresca would have to bring on a new goalkeeper in Filip Jorgensen and “sacrifice” a field player—Estevao—to do so. But why did he take off a second offensive player, Pedro Neto, and bring on defender Tosin Adarabioyo?
“The reason was that they always attack with five players and we defend with four,” Maresca explained the starting situation in the game against ManUnited’s 3-4-3. “With eleven against eleven, we can defend with four players, but with ten, we have to defend across the width, so we decided on a back five.”
It didn’t work: Bruno Fernandes put the Red Devils ahead just eight minutes later, before Maresca was forced to substitute Cole Palmer. The top scorer, who celebrated his comeback to the starting lineup against Bayern Munich in Munich during the week and scored in the 1-3 defeat, was once again troubled by the adductor problems that have plagued him all season. “He took a test this morning and put in a fantastic effort, but he wasn’t 100 percent fit,” Maresca reported.
In the end, Chelsea suffered their first league defeat of the season, even though United had also been decimated shortly before half-time after 2-0 goalscorer Casemiro (37′) was shown a yellow-red card (45’+5). For the first time, the Premier League saw a half with at least two goals, two red cards, and two substitutions. Chelsea only pulled one back in the closing stages through Trevoh Chalobah (80′), when Maresca had long since made another double substitution (64′).
Maresca would have preferred to concede the goal than see his player sent off
The coach was particularly unhappy with Sanchez’s wild action at the start. He would have preferred to concede the goal than have a player sent off. “That would have been the best thing, because there were still 95 minutes to play. I think even Robert is aware of that, but at the same time it’s difficult because he has to make a decision within a second or two.” But that ruined his entire game plan.
Savage, on the other hand, did not regret his four substitutions on Tuesday: Forest Green Rovers’ second string won 3-2, while the rested first team followed up with a 2-0 win at Woking FC in the league on Saturday.