Enzo Maresca happy enough for point gained with ten in feisty draw against Arsenal

I had the pleasure(?) of listening to this game live on Chelsea TV, with an extra-extra amped up Jason Cundy going absolutely berserk at even the tiniest bit of action. Cundy operates at an 11 on a normal day. He was around a 14 for this one.

But in a way, he was the perfect conduit for initially experiencing this feisty throwback affair between two old rivals. Where once stood Mourinho and Wenger there now were (pale imitations) Arteta and Maresca (with colors reversed, perhaps, and no neckties because managerial dress is too casual these days). Instead of Lampard v. Fàbregas, or Mikel v. Kolo Touré, we got Neto v. Hincapié or Enzo versus … well, anyone really. João Pedro trucked a man inside of five seconds. Referee Anthony Taylor lost control inside of five minutes. Everyone tried to get everyone else sent off, or at least maim them. Arsenal collected six bookings; they had twelve total in their previous twelve league games this season coming in. Quality chances were rare; quality football even more so. There was no need for tactics boards or analytics. And good times were had.

Unfortunately, Moisés Caicedo was deemed a bit too naughty — debatable, given the context of the rest of the game — and got his marching orders in the first half. Hincapié gave Trevoh Chalobah a black eye and Viktor Gyökeres was reckless and also late with his challenge on a prone Robert Sánchez, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

We gritted out a draw anyway: a point gained for us; two points lost for the league leaders. A win would’ve been better, but as Enzo Maresca said afterwards, we probably can be decently happy with this outcome as well.

“I think sometimes you have to be happy even with one point. For sure, the target was to win the game. Again, 11v11, I think we were a better team than them. We managed the game, we controlled the game, we created chances and we didn’t concede anything.

“Then the red card changed a little bit the dynamic, but even with that, I think the way the players dealt with that and were outstanding […]  I told them at half time, we need to double the effort. And they were outstanding. [I was most proud of] the effort of the players.”

-Enzo Maresca; source: Football.London

We could’ve lost with 11. We could’ve easily lost with 10. We didn’t. We didn’t win either, and that’s not ideal, but momentum and confidence can still be gained and maintained from this.