It took Chelsea just three days to answer the question about whether they are ready to be Arsenal’s main challengers in the title race this season.
The club’s Premier League credentials had been back on the agenda after a run of seven games without defeat in all competitions. The two performances going into the Leeds fixture had fuelled the debate, and for good reason. They followed up an impressive 3-0 Champions League win over Barcelona with a highly credible 1-1 draw against league leaders Arsenal on Sunday, despite playing for nearly an hour with 10 men. Effusive praise from many quarters soon followed.
When Chelsea were seemingly building a similar kind of momentum this time last year, head coach Enzo Maresca dismissed their hopes completely. He has kept the door a lot more ajar this time around, though, taking a ‘let’s see where we are in February-March’ approach.
But it seems Maresca should remain on the cautious side. The nature of Chelsea’s dismal 3-1 defeat away to Leeds United provided more than enough evidence that they cannot match the pace Arsenal are setting.
Maresca contemplates defeat at Elland Road (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
For starters, it is worth providing the reality check that Maresca’s side are actually doing worse than they were at the same stage last season.
Following a 5-1 win away to Southampton on December 4, 2024, Chelsea were second and within seven points of eventual champions Liverpool, who were setting a slightly hotter pace (35 points after 14 games) than Arsenal (33 from 14) are doing. This was Chelsea’s record in the league at the time:
| Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Goals For | Goals Against | Goal difference | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
14 |
8 |
4 |
2 |
31 |
15 |
16 |
28 |
Now compare those numbers with where Chelsea are 12 months on. They are two positions lower in the standings in fourth. Without taking draws into account, as having more of them can be perceived as a negative or a positive depending on whether it has cost you a win or saved you from defeat, Chelsea are down on basically everything else (as highlighted in red). Only in the goals against column are they matching what they were doing last year.
| Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Goals For | Goals Against | Goal Difference | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
14 |
7 |
3 |
4 |
25 |
15 |
10 |
24 |
Chelsea went on a bad run of winning two league games out of 10 from December 26 to February 22 (picking up eight points) last season, so there is room for improvement there, but events at Elland Road have surely silenced the title hype.
It should be stressed that Chelsea’s target is to finish top four and that internally the club did not expect to be in a position to lift the Premier League trophy in May.
But the way they failed to really compete at Leeds has to be a disappointment. You do not see Arsenal fold in this manner. It is not the first time this season either, as they wilted in their other Premier League losses to Manchester United, Brighton & Hove Albion and Sunderland, but unlike on those occasions, this was a case of being outfought for the vast majority of the match.
Cole Palmer made his first appearance for Chelsea since September 20 (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
Maresca will no doubt come under scrutiny for making five changes to his first XI, but as has been documented by The Athletic, this is part of a deliberate strategy backed by the club to deal with the load management of players, with another away game at Bournemouth on Saturday, followed by a key Champions League trip to Atalanta next week.
Influential midfielder Moises Caicedo was not available due to suspension; the minutes of two key players, captain Reece James and Wesley Fofana, are having to be looked after due to their injury record in recent years; Pedro Neto had started every league game until the Leeds fixture — so you can see an argument there — although he seemed fresh enough when coming on at the beginning of the second half and scored Chelsea’s goal.
25% – Since joining the club ahead of the 2023-24 season, Chelsea have won just 25% of their Premier League matches when Moisés Caicedo hasn’t been in the starting XI (2/8), compared to 52% when he has been a starter for them (43/82). Foundation. pic.twitter.com/vnx3zr2cTz
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 3, 2025
Only Malo Gusto’s omission from the first XI — he was the other change at the interval — was odd, because the France international played just 45 minutes against Barcelona last week.
The cause for concern is what their replacements — including the returning Cole Palmer, who came on after an hour — produced, raising question marks about the true depth of Chelsea’s squad.
Centre-backs Tosin Adarabioyo and Benoit Badiashile had games to forget; Andrey Santos has shown encouraging signs of late, but fell short of Caicedo’s standards as a No 6; Jamie Gittens provided his fifth assist of the season, but did not do enough in the hour he was on the pitch; while striker Liam Delap was underwhelming.
Maresca provided an honest admission post-match that Chelsea are always going to be negatively affected when Caicedo, James and Fofana are not available.
He said: “When you play the way we did in the last two games against Barcelona and Arsenal, you expect a better performance, no doubt. But for many reasons, it is not going to be possible for every game. Again, because we changed players, because we have players that we said many times that for them it’s not possible to play every two or three days.
“And when you change players, the level drop is the reality, because they are important players for us. Moi (Caicedo), Reece (James), Wes (Fofana), these kinds of players. But we cannot use them every game. It’s impossible, because otherwise they can get injured again and be out for months and months and months.”
It all suggests that inconsistent results and performances are an inevitability. Chelsea can still achieve a lot this season, but a proper challenger to Arsenal for the Premier League? They still have plenty to improve before that notion can be taken seriously.
