It would be easier for Chelsea to rationalise the humiliation of being swatted aside by Flamengo if another statement win for South America could be attributed solely to Nicolas Jackson’s latest rush of blood to the head. Unfortunately, this was also a dreadful afternoon for Enzo Maresca, who got his tactics wrong and somehow found a way to produce the self-sabotage of treating the Lincoln Financial Field to a masterclass on how to neutralise Cole Palmer.
So much for all the hype about Palmer taking the No 10 shirt. Why leave him isolated on the right? Palmer yearned for his normal central role and he did not look impressed when he went off in the 82nd minute, by which point Flamengo were 2-1 up, in possession of a one-man advantage and presumably very happy to see Maresca remove Chelsea’s likeliest source of salvaging something from the wreckage of their six-minute implosion midway through the second half.
