Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca calls for 'consistency'

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca has called on his players to strive for “consistency” in their pursuit of the Premier League title this season.

The Blues suffered a surprise 2-1 defeat against Sunderland at Stamford Bridge on Saturday to end their four-game winning streak, which leaves them five points behind leaders Arsenal ahead of Sunday’s clash with Crystal Palace.

Maresca’s side went on a four-game successive run, securing victories over Benfica, Liverpool, Nottingham Forest and Ajax in all competitions, as they headed into the match against Sunderland in fine form.

Chelsea got off to the perfect start when summer signing Alejandro Garnacho scored his first goal for the club following his move from Manchester United in the summer, but they were soon pegged back by Sunderland forward Wilson Isidor’s close-range finish.

Winger Chemsdine Talbi then popped up with a 94th-minute winner to stun Chelsea, with Sunderland moving up to second in the table following their last-gasp victory.

The outcome leaves Chelsea five points behind Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, who face Crystal Palace at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Maresca’s team trails Manchester City by two points as they face Aston Villa on Sunday, with Chelsea now relying on favourable results to remain competitive with the league’s top two title contenders.

Maresca said, following Chelsea’s defeat against Sunderland: in his post-match press conference: “I think we were not good enough in general. We know that in the moment you drop a little, we dropped a little bit; you can lose points against any team in the Premier League. That is so difficult.”

When asked if he expected more from his substitutes, Maresca said: “No it’s always difficult for the ones that they go inside. At least they tried. But again, overall we were not good enough.”

And when speaking to Chelsea’s official club website, Maresca expressed his frustration at his side’s inability to maintain the level they had shown in recent weeks, adding: “If you want to be up there you need the consistency. We won four in a row and yesterday we could have shown that, but because we lost points we didn’t show that.

“If we can have that level and this level, probably it is better to have something in between, to be consistent always in the same way, rather than like this. But I think overall, since we started, we have performed much better compared to Saturday’s game (against Forest).

“Before this game, we had exactly the same points as last year after eight games, but we dropped points yesterday. But we are still in October, we need to improve many things, and see where we are in March, April, May.”