Chelsea suffered a disappointing setback on Wednesday night as Leeds United powered to a 3–1 victory in their Premier League clash. Goals from Jaka Bijol, Ao Tanaka and Dominic Calvert-Lewin secured the win for Leeds, while Pedro Neto scored the only goal for the Blues.
Following the defeat, Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca did not hide his frustration with his team’s performance, admitting that his side were second best throughout the match.
“A very poor night. They deserved to win the game, they were better in all aspects.”
“There is nothing that we can take from this game. The only thing we can do is try to understand the mistakes we have done, try to reset, because on Saturday we have another game.”
“I hope that we had a bad night because they were on the ball, off the ball, second ball, they were much better than us in all aspects.”
Speaking on his decision to substitute young winger Estêvão, Maresca added:
“I think the feeling with Estêvão was, you know, a little bit ‘welcome to Leeds’. Sometimes aged 18, you struggle to manage emotion, so it was better to change him and to avoid a red card.”
The loss ends Chelsea’s seven-match unbeaten run and sees them drop to fourth place in the Premier League.