Chelsea 1 Celtic 4: Defensive issues, goalkeeper dilemma and ...

Chelsea’s wait for a first win on their tour of the United States — and a first victory of the Enzo Maresca era — goes on after they were soundly beaten by Celtic in Indiana.

Maresca’s side needed a late goal to rescue a draw in their tour opener against Wrexham — a team just promoted to League One, England’s third tier — and Chelsea had an even more difficult time against the Scottish champions.

Celtic are further on in their pre-season preparations than Chelsea — they beat Manchester City 4-3 earlier this week — but there was still plenty of food for thought for Maresca as he prepares his team for the new campaign.

Does Maresca already have a defensive issue to solve?

It was always going to take time for the Chelsea squad to adapt to the way Maresca wants to play, but the amount of chances they are conceding is cause for alarm.

Wrexham were able to get in behind them regularly in the second half of their tour opener and scored twice. There was some mitigation for that because the three players at the back, the system Maresca likes to use with the right-back inverted, were an unusual combination of academy graduate Josh Acheampong, Wesley Fofana and Ben Chilwell.

However, Maresca employed the much stronger trio of Benoit Badiashile, Levi Colwill and Fofana from the outset against Celtic and the same problems occurred.

There were huge gaps behind them for Celtic to exploit and that is exactly what they did. Granted, this was Celtic’s fifth pre-season game compared to Chelsea’s second — and the Scottish champions looked much sharper in the opening 45 minutes — but it would be wrong to dismiss some of Chelsea’s issues as simply the result of a lack of match fitness.

It was just too easy to play a ball over the top or slide one down the line. The first goal, scored by Matt O’Riley in the 19th minute, came from Chelsea being caught out by a short corner and then just standing off as Celtic played the ball around people doing good impressions of mannequins.

The introduction of Tosin Adarabioyo for Fofana coincided with a better second-half display for around 30 minutes, although that was partly due to Maresca’s side dominating possession much more and Celtic concentrating on trying to defend their lead.

Yet Chelsea found a way to self-destruct again late on as Badiashile passed the ball straight to Luis Palma for the third and Michael Johnston ran on to Palma’s ball for the fourth.

With Chelsea’s final two games of their pre-season tour being against Manchester City and Real Madrid (they face Club America before that), you wonder how many goals those two superior sides might manage if things are not tightened up quickly.

Who will win the battle to be No 1?

As far as pre-match preparations go, goalkeeper Robert Sanchez could have been forgiven for being a little distracted and/or perturbed.

The news that Chelsea have agreed a fee of €24.5million (£20.7m, $26.6m) with Villarreal for goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen was confirmed just a few hours before kick-off. The 22-year-old is now on his way to the U.S. to have a medical and as long as there are no complications, he will soon be training with the squad.

It is fresh competition for Sanchez, who lost his starting role to Djordje Petrovic last season after suffering a knee injury in December.

Sanchez was clearly able to put it to the back of his mind, though, because he was the reason Chelsea conceded only two goals in the first half.

He made some fine saves, the outstanding one coming from Kyogo Furuhashi when it looked like the forward had a simple task of finishing at the far post. Furuhashi did find the net four minutes later, though.

One of the reasons Sanchez is being given a genuine chance to be No 1 again is because he is deemed to be good with his feet. A long punt over Noni Madueke’s head and straight into touch just before the interval did not do justice to this theory.

He would have been relieved to be more of a spectator for the early part of the second half and it gave him a chance to practise more of his passing. The Spaniard was also very alert to come charging out of his goal to intercept one Celtic pass and he volleyed it first time to a team-mate.

There was not much he could do about the two goals Chelsea went on to concede as that was down to his team-mates in front of him. He was replaced by Lucas Bergstrom with minutes remaining and while Sanchez did OK, no goalkeeper will be happy to concede four goals, particularly when a new signing is about to arrive.

Why Sterling is ahead of Mudryk in the pecking order

After not being involved against Wrexham three days ago, Mykhailo Mudryk was named in the starting XI against Celtic, but he underwhelmed.

That has been the story too often since the Ukraine international joined for an initial £62m in January 2023.

His record reads 12 goals and 17 assists in 44 appearances for previous club Shakhtar Donetsk. It is a more meagre seven goals and four assists from 58 games for Chelsea.

Mudryk did not see much of the ball against Celtic and offered little threat. There was one nice run and cross and a tame deflected shot, but that was comfortably handled by Kasper Schmeichel.

That was in stark contrast to Raheem Sterling’s contribution when he replaced Mudryk at the interval. The England international hit the post with one fine effort and set up Madueke, only for him to scuff a shot well wide.

Chelsea did manage to get on the scoresheet just before the final whistle and that was the result of a fine dribble by Sterling, who was tripped by Colby Donovan in the area. Christopher Nkunku scored from the spot to at least provide Maresca’s men with some consolation.

It will not be a surprise, though, if Sterling is considered ahead of Mudryk in the pecking order for the time being.

What did Maresca say?

“The result is always important but in this moment we need to judge and analyse different things,” Chelsea’s manager said. “On the ball we created chances, off the ball we probably conceded too much and that is something we need to improve.

“For sure, we need many things to improve off the ball. One of the things we did bad today was when the ball was not under pressure, to maintain the high line. When the ball is not under pressure, you need to drop.

“We still confuse some things on and off the ball. For me, it’s normal in this moment. We are trying to do something new. But for sure, game after game, training after training, we are going to be ready.

“What was important to realise was the difference between us and them in terms of physical condition. You can see they played already three or four games and they start the season soon. For us, you can see we struggled a bit physically.”

What next for Chelsea?

Wednesday, July 31: Club America (Atlanta, Georgia), 7:30pm ET, 12:30am (Thursday) BST

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(Top photo: Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)

Simon Johnson has spent the majority of his career as a sports reporter since 2000 covering Chelsea, firstly for Hayters and then the London Evening Standard. This included going to every game home and away as the west London club secured the Champions League in 2012. He has also reported on the England national team between 2008-19 and been a regular contributor to talkSPORT radio station for over a decade. Follow Simon on Twitter @SJohnsonSport