Chelsea just set an unwanted record that proves Enzo Maresca made two key errors against Man United

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Chelsea’s decent start to the season has slowed as of late, as they suffered their first defeat of the Premier League season, coming against Manchester United.

The Blues were immediately disadvantaged, as Robert Sanchez was shown a straight red card just five minutes into the encounter.

First-half goals from Bruno Fernandes and Casemiro gave the Red Devils a two-goal advantage, but the tables would turn again.

A red card for Casemiro just before the halfway mark meant both teams had to play the second half with ten men.

Chelsea pulled a goal back through Trevoh Chalobah, but they were unable to find an equaliser, as they fell to defeat.

It was far from an easy situation for Enzo Maresca to manage, but one that saw the Blues set an unwanted record of their own in the Premier League.

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Chelsea set unwanted cards and shots record in the Premier League

After going down to ten men, Chelsea found it tough to compete, at least for the first half.

That changed in the second half, as Maresca’s side were on an even playing field again, and pushed to get back into the game.

While they pushed plenty, they weren’t able to find that bit of quality that was needed to score an equaliser.

In the end, the lack of an end product showed in an unwanted Premier League statistic.

According to Opta data, it’s the first time on record in the Premier League that Chelsea had more cards (six) than shots (five) in a match.

It showed just how difficult the match truly was for the Blues, mixed with frustration, rash challenges and a lack of clear-cut opportunities.

Chelsea created just 0.43 xG in the match, as their creative spark was lost.

Part of that can be blamed on one decision that Maresca made very early in the match.

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Enzo Maresca’s defensive substitutions proved costly for Chelsea against Manchester United

Chelsea were still in the game within the first five minutes, even though Sanchez’s red card had occurred.

However, Maresca made two substitutions that were baffling and may have proven costly within the match.

With Filip Jorgensen coming on to replace Sanchez in goal, Estevao Willian was sacrificed, while Pedro Neto also came off for Tosin Adarabioyo.

Both players were arguably Chelsea’s biggest threat on the transition, which may have been their only route to goal when they had ten men.

On the decision to sub off Neto and Estevao, Maresca told the press: “The reason why we changed Pedro [Neto] and Estevao [Willian] was because they [Man United] attack with the five players always, and we defend with the four.

“And we can defend with the four when we are 11 versus 11, but 11 against them, I think we need to defend on the width, so we decided to go with the back five. This is the reason why.”

It was a potentially negative move that stopped Chelsea from offering that threat going the other way.

That wasn’t helped by Cole Palmer’s injury, which saw him substituted around the 20-minute mark.

Overall, though, the lack of risk taken by Chelsea to go and get something from the game seems to be an error from Maresca, one which has now proven costly.

After Chelsea’s defeat to Bayern Munich, and now this, it’s important that the side bounce back in their EFL Cup fixture with Lincoln City.