Another Thursday night in the Conference League and another flexing of muscle from the continent’s most glittering second-string side.
An entirely changed Chelsea XI made it two wins from two at the start of the group stage, thrashing Greek side Panathanikos 4-1 in Athens.
Five of Enzo Maresca’s most consistent first-teamers were left in London, in addition to Cole Palmer, Wesley Fofana and Romeo Lavia, who were never registered for this phase of the competition to start with.
The four players to travel who had started the 2-1 defeat at Liverpool on Sunday were all unused on the bench, leaving the crop who already this term have emerged as cup regulars with another chance to impress.
Of those, Joao Felix and the much-maligned Mykhailo Mudryk grabbed it best, scoring the first three goals between them and, in Felix’s case, winning the penalty from which Christopher Nkunku added the fourth.
The Portuguese again looked a cut above at this level, his intelligent flick the key in a move he then finished to open the scoring before half-time. His second was fortuitous, deflecting past a wrong-footed ’keeper, but he was selfless in not demanding a hat-trick opportunity from the spot soon after, instead allowing Nkunku to stretch his perfect record in Europe this season to four goals in four.
For Mudryk, meanwhile, a determined header from Pedro Neto’s cross brought a first goal in any competition this season. Coupled with assists for both Felix strikes, this was among the Ukrainian’s most positive nights in a Chelsea shirt and timely at that, after he had failed even to make the bench at Anfield on Sunday. A broad smile and celebratory hug with Maresca after his goal had effectively settled the contest suggested there are no hard feelings over that call.
It was a more controlled, composed showing than the 4-2 win over Gent with which Chelsea began their campaign before the international break, executed in what Maresca conceded was a “complicated” atmosphere as the hosts paid tribute to George Baldock.
This was Panathanikos’s first home game since the 31-year-old was found dead in his swimming pool barely a fortnight ago. Before kick-off, the crowd at Athens’s Olympic Stadium held placards bearing his shirt number, 32, as David Bowie’s ‘Starman’ played, the tune adopted for the defender’s chant during his long spell at Sheffield United.
For Maresca personally, too, this occasion came with a sombre tint. The Blues boss spoke on Wednesday of how trips to Athens evoke mixed memories: he spent a largely happy season with Panathanikos’s cross-city rivals Olympiacos as a player, but also turned out against them for Sevilla in an emotional first game after friend and teammate Antonio Puerta had passed away in 2007.
The Greeks channeled the emotion best from kick-off and went close early on, Filip Jorgensen producing a fine save to keep out Tin Jedvaj’s header after Chelsea’s high defensive line had again been exposed, this time from a set-piece.
This was a good night for Jorgensen, who came through concussion protocols to play and put pressure on Robert Sanchez, whose iffy league form has brought fresh doubt over his place as No1.
A first clean sheet in a month, since the 5-0 thrashing of League One side Barrow, would have been of great satisfaction to Maresca, who has prickled when quizzed about his side’s defensive frailties in recent weeks.
Instead, former Manchester United winger Facundo Pellestri grabbed a consolation at the end of a fine move to make it five games in a row in which the Blues’s backline has been breached.
That will continue to nag at the manager, with games against Newcastle, Manchester United and Arsenal to come across the next three weekends in the Premier League. In Europe, though, Chelsea are cruising, a run deep into the knockout stages of this competition already feeling an inevitability.
