Chelsea came up short during yesterday’s trip to the Etihad Stadium as they suffered defeat to Manchester City in the Premier League.
The Blues slipped to a 3-1 away loss at Man City in Saturday’s league showdown. Incidentally, they’ve now gone 11 consecutive meetings without a win versus Pep Guardiola’s side.
The Chelsea player ratings versus Man City highlighted the fact that many individuals underperformed in the important weekend clash.
Despite going ahead through Noni Madueke’s early goal, the visitors surrendered their lead because of Man City goalscorers Josko Gvardiol, Erling Haaland and Phil Foden.
Here are five things we learned from Chelsea’s away defeat against Man City…
Enzo Maresca is being too stubborn with Robert Sanchez
Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca is showing plenty of belief to certain players this season, but his stubborn loyalty to Robert Sanchez in goal is costing the team several results.
Blues keeper Sanchez put in another poor individual display versus Man City, which included him being chipped by Haaland when he was caught off his line. Paul Merson urged Chelsea to sign a new goalkeeper immediately after watching yesterday’s match.
It doesn’t sound like the head coach is prepared to give up on Sanchez as his first-choice goalkeeper, though.
Speaking in his post-match interview after Chelsea’s defeat at Man City, Maresca said via Football.London: “We trust Robert for sure. The first one who is completely aware that he is making mistakes in this moment is Robert. For sure we continue to trust Robert.”
Most people should agree that Sanchez simply isn’t good enough to start in-between the sticks for the club, but it’ll take the manager holding his hands up and admitting he made a mistake for things to be fixed.
Noni Madueke is a mixed bag
In Chelsea’s defeat to Man City, fans saw both the best and the worse of Blues winger Noni Madueke.
It was the 22-year-old winger who put the visitors in front in the early stages, scoring a simple tap in for his eighth goal of the season across all competitions.
Madueke did show some really exciting moments with flashes of excellence in Saturday’s game, but he’s a player that you can’t help associate with inconsistency on the pitch.
While he deserves praise for his goal and directness on the football, the right-winger didn’t work hard enough or smart enough without possession when tracking back to help out with defensive work. In fact, Man City full-back Gvardiol enjoyed so much freedom whenever he advanced forward.
Christopher Nkunku has clear problem
Most of the talk on Chelsea attacker Christopher Nkunku right now is centred around the transfer speculation regarding his future.
Manchester United have made direct contact for Nkunku as they look into possibly signing the 27-year-old player in this January window.
The Frenchman did get half an hour of action off the bench to try make an impact against Man City at the weekend. Unfortunately, his very quiet display demonstrated his biggest issue at Stamford Bridge.
| Minutes played | Total shots | Touches in opposition box | Chances created | Accurate passes | Successful dribbles | Match rating |
| 29 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13/14 (93%) | 1/1 (100%) | 6.4 |
Nkunku replaced Nicolas Jackson as the central striker as Chelsea tried to regain the lead against Man City, but it’s so evident that he’s not an out-and-out No.9. While he’s much more effective in a deeper role, he’ll rarely get a look-in ahead of Cole Palmer for the No.10 spot.
Top four suddenly looks a huge challenge for Chelsea
Following Saturday’s results in the Premier League, Chelsea ended up dropping down to sixth in the division table.
| Position | Team | Played MP | Won W | Drawn D | Lost L | For GF | Against GA | Diff GD | Points Pts |
| 3 |  Nottm ForestNottingham Forest | 23 | 13 | 5 | 5 | 33 | 27 | 6 | 44 |
| 4 |  Man CityManchester City | 23 | 12 | 5 | 6 | 47 | 30 | 17 | 41 |
| 5 |  NewcastleNewcastle | 23 | 12 | 5 | 6 | 41 | 27 | 14 | 41 |
| 6 |  ChelseaChelsea | 23 | 11 | 7 | 5 | 45 | 30 | 15 | 40 |
| 7 |  B’mouthBournemouth | 23 | 11 | 7 | 5 | 41 | 26 | 15 | 40 |
| 8 |  Aston VillaAston Villa | 22 | 10 | 6 | 6 | 33 | 34 | -1 | 36 |
The loss of form for Maresca’s side in the past month means that they’re now actually in an extremely tough fight to finish inside the top four. Based on current form, they’ll be fortunate if they do qualify for the Champions League.
The Blues really need to get back on track when they face West Ham (home), Brighton (away) and Aston Villa (away) in their next three league fixtures.
Chelsea’s internal aim is to get back in the Champions League in 2025, so that is becoming more and more at risk of failure with every poor result.
Tosin Adarabioyo was a winner
Even though Chelsea defender Tosin Adarabioyo dropped to the bench against Man City, it doesn’t mean he can’t force his way back into the best line-up. In fact, it was a good day for him yesterday from an individual perspective without kicking a ball.
Tosin, 27, was superb at the start of the week in the league victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers, but he was an unused substitute against Man City because Trevoh Chalobah and Levi Colwill started as the centre-back partnership.
Based off this week, the Chalobah-Tosin pairing looked much better than the Chalobah-Colwill combination. The latter found it quite difficult at the Etihad, especially Colwill when defending against Haaland.
Tosin is happy right now at Chelsea as he plays an important squad role during his debut season at the club, so we’re intrigued to see if he can get back into the starting XI for the upcoming fixtures.
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