Maresca blasts 'very poor' Chelsea

Enzo Maresca slammed his lackluster Chelsea side after its Premier League title challenge suffered a huge setback with a shock 3-1 defeat at lowly Leeds on Wednesday.

Maresca's side paid the price for a woeful first-half performance at Elland Road that saw Jaka Bijol and Ao Tanaka score for the host.

Pedro Neto reduced the deficit after the interval, but Chelsea conceded a farcical third goal to Dominic Calvert-Lewin in the closing stages.

Losing to fourth-bottom Leeds, a side beaten in its previous four games, was the Blues' first defeat in eight games in all competitions and left them nine points adrift of league leader Arsenal in fourth place.

"There was nobody at their best level," Maresca said. "They were better than us in all aspects, they deserved to win. It was a very poor night. We performed so well against Arsenal and Barcelona, but it doesn't mean we are going to always perform the same way, because of the situation you have to manage, the players you have to rotate.

"The only thing we can do is to try and understand what we did (wrong) and then reset."

Chelsea was without influential midfielder Moises Caicedo after the Ecuador star was sent off in Sunday's stormy 1-1 draw against Arsenal.

Maresca rested Neto, Reece James, and Wesley Fofana in a bid to freshen up his side.

But Chelsea still looked drained from facing Arsenal with 10 men for so long, and Leeds took full advantage.

"I hope we just had a bad night, because it's a game where you struggle to take anything from. They were much better in the duels," Maresca said. "It's the Premier League, you need to perform every game, no matter if you are at home or away.

"We missed Moises tonight, and will miss him in the next two games. He is an important player for any team in the world."

Leeds struck after just six minutes when Anton Stach's corner picked out Bijol and he rose above Liam Delap to power his header past Chelsea stopper Robert Sanchez.

AFP