Chelsea: Enzo Maresca's indefensible backing of Robert Sanchez must end

You have to go back four years, to the Champions League final and a 1-0 win in Porto for the last time Chelsea beat Manchester City.

They were gifted the same lead inside two minutes at the Etihad but failed to kick on, and were eventually punished for some shoddy defending and Enzo Maresca’s increasingly indefensible backing of his goalkeeper.

Robert Sanchez, at fault for Wolves’s goal with an ugly flap on Monday night, played a comical non-part in Erling Haaland’s pivotal goal, which put City ahead for the first time and on their way to a 3-1 win which, even in this historically poor campaign, takes them above the Blues and into the top four.

Charging out needlessly with vague designs on meeting the Norwegian, Sanchez was stranded out of his area but still with time to turn tail as Trevor Chalobah tried desperately to hold his man up. Instead, Sanchez froze, deciding the edge of his own box would be a fine place to watch Haaland execute a loft into the empty net.

Maresca was not exactly bullish in support of the Spaniard on Friday, insisting that he remains his man for this season, but perhaps not all. He admitted Sanchez is “still far, far, far from where I want him to be”. At 27, and on all known evidence, he feels unlikely to get there.

The change will surely come in the summer, but how much damage will be done before then? These were yet more costly points dropped in the race for the Champions League. There may end up five spaces going, but Chelsea are now sixth, sandwiched between two teams, in Bournemouth and Newcastle, who are flying.

Filip Jorgensen is surely worth a punt at this stage, for all the young No2’s most recent league outing at Ipswich was iffy. Or else there is the option of a transfer window still open for another week, one which City have already utilised in the hope of reviving a desperate campaign. With just one win in seven now, Chelsea sure could use the boost.

That said, if an injection of fresh talent was supposed to lift City on the back of their Parisian implosion in midweek, in the opening exchanges any benefit was all to their opposition.

Abdukodir Khusanov, one of two debutants alongside the exciting Omar Marmoush, was signed from Lens this week and, given he was still playing in Belarus a little more than 18 months ago, this would have been a first glimpse of the first Uzbekistani to play in the Premier League for most.

On the first five minutes’s evidence, you wondered whether City had been conned, proper Ali Dia style. The 20-year-old wildly missed his header in the lead-up to Chelsea’s opener, then scuffed his backpass to give Nicolas Jackson the chance to square for Madueke’s goal. Within moments of the restart, he was booked for a rash challenge on Cole Palmer and it would have taken little explaining had the centre-back been immediately hooked.

For a spell, some team-mates seemed visibly hesitant to give the novice the ball and with John Stones warming up at the interval, it was a small surprise to see him emerge for the second half. Eight minutes later, a nightmare debut came to an end. It was impossible not to feel for the kid, but Sanchez stretched his sympathy too far in contriving to deflect headlines.

Chelsea, for their part, looked every bit as vulnerable defensively as City’s muddled back four, and without the excuse that they had met one of their number in the car park.

Not helped by an ominous combination of high-line without pressure on the ball, Reece James and Marc Cucurella were both troubled at full-back by the runs of their opposite numbers. Matheus Nunes and Gvardiol combined for City’s leveller, with Madueke’s lack of defensive nous sharing a hefty chunk of the blame.

Sanchez, even before his chief clanger, had had one let-off, fumbling a routine shot into the path of the lively Marmoush. The Egyptian scored and was flagged offside; had he left the rebound to Bernardo Silva, arriving from deeper, the goal would have stood.

No matter, for in the end they were undone by some more dismal goalkeeping and some throwback football from City, who at last weaponised Haaland’s power with a refreshingly direct approach. He scored the second, before shrugging off Levi Colwill to lay on the clincher for Phil Foden.

This felt like a statement from Guardiola’s men. Maresca must surely now make one of his own, by dropping his No1.