New season, same old Manchester City, who began their pursuit of a fifth consecutive League title with a clinical 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge.
Same old Chelsea, too, in many respects, as Enzo Maresca’s first game in charge was overshadowed by events away from the pitch.
Within minutes of Chelsea announcing Maresca’s first XI as head coach, Raheem Sterling’s camp released a statement seeking “clarity” over the forward’s future at the club after he was left out of the match-day squad against his former club.
Maresca described Sterling’s omission as “a technical decision” before kick-off but was certain to face questions afterwards about the winger’s place in his new-look project.
For his part, presumably Sterling senses that this is not about just one game but perhaps a concerted effort to force him out of Stamford Bridge – along with academy graduates Conor Gallagher and Trevoh Chalobah and others – as part of Maresca’s attempts to trim a vastly bloated squad before the end of the month.
There were some chants for Gallagher from Chelsea supporters in the first half – shortly after Haaland bundled through Levi Colwill and Marc Cucurella to put City in front – further adding to the sense that while Chelsea’s squad remains in a state of flux, their football will rarely be the story.
Perhaps Sterling’s camp could have dealt with his omission in private but the 29-year-old would be within his rights to look at the way the club have treated Gallagher and Chalobah, who are both training away from the first team, and decide to take control of the narrative.
For Chelsea’s ownership, these are the consequences of such a wild and unconventional approach to squad building and the uncertainty over Gallagher, Sterling and others is likely to hang over Maresca until their futures are resolved one way or another.
Which should rightly frustrate Mauricio Pochettino’s successor, particularly as Chelsea offered some reasons for optimism here, in spite of the end result, which was sealed by a former Blues player in Mateo Kovacic.
For most of the contest, Chelsea were good value for a result against the champions, with Nicolas Jackson seeing an equaliser ruled out for a tight offside and volleying straight at Ederson from point-blank range.
Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez also made a spectacular save to deny Jeremy Doku but, really, the difference between the sides was at centre-forward.
Haaland took his big chance, collecting Bernard’s deft touch and driving into the box to finish cutely, while Jackson was wasteful, if lively.
Chelsea also had three penalty appeals waved away in the first half, two for clumsy challenges on Enzo Fernandez – who captained the side, despite being forced to apologise to his team-mates for racist and homophobic chanting with Argentina over the summer.
Chelsea kept the ball confidently and occasionally threatened to get behind City’s high line, though Maresca will be frustrated with the way his side twice conceded, particularly the second goal.
Chelsea struggled to play out from the back – a theme of pre-season – and Wesley Fofana’s poor kick was incepted by Kovacic, who glided far too easily away from Moises Caicedo to finish from the edge of the box.
With Sterling, a true winger, exiled, Maresca started with two No.10s either side of Jackson in Cole Palmer and Christopher Nkunku, although the latter was ineffective from the left.
Summer signing Pedro Neto, a £51million addition from Wolves, made his debut in the second half and nearly got on the end of Enzo’s low cross within seconds; expect the Portuguese to nail down the left-wing spot before long, which should give Maresca’s side more balance.
Renato Veiga, Kieran Dewsbury-Hall and Marc Guiu – more new signings – were also introduced in the second half for competitive debuts.
On the one hand, this is another Chelsea squad full of new players, and they can reasonably be expected to grow into the season, as they did last term.
On the flip side, the Chelsea owners have their latest man in the dugout and have backed him with another slew of new signings, while last season’s additions should be settled.
So Chelsea cannot keep claiming to be a work in progress forever, and encouraging performances will only sustain Maresca for so long in front of such a notoriously demanding crowd.
