16 Conclusions on Manchester United 2-1 Chelsea: Amorim passes the sack baton to Maresca

Enzo Maresca lost his head and openly admitted it after taking the Manchester United sack pressure from Ruben Amorim and placing it on his own shoulders.

It was an inexplicable game from the Chelsea coach who seemed to think there were no problems in publicly discussing afterwards how his panicking basically consigned them to defeat from as early as the fifth minute.

Perhaps he owed Amorim a favour and wanted to ease the situation Manchester United.

1) From openly defying hypothetical papal tactical demands one day to actively personifying the ‘call an ambulance…but not for me’ meme the next, it feels like whatever ultimately comes of this absurd reign of Ruben Amorim he has at least embraced the innate box-officeness of a Portuguese Manchester United manager.

These are still foundations built out of water on a bouncy castle made from quicksand while wearing a blindfold and boxing gloves, but that Manchester United supporter is as close as he has ever been to getting a haircut and Amorim is delivering with interest on the promise he made upon his appointment.

2) It should have been considerably easier. As the first half reached a crescendo of ludicrousness it became a case study in the importance of confidence in elite sport.

These are ultra athletes who have every microscopic detail of the game fine-tuned by the finest minds around. But while Manchester United had the advantage in terms of numbers it was little more than 11 players with a collective belief surging through them against ten disjointed, shell-shocked individuals trying to survive.

That sort of momentum never carries through over 90 minutes and it is crucial to adjust to those shifts in energy. It would have done Manchester United the world of good to win by three or four goals but the fortitude they displayed to hold on might actually be more beneficial in the long run.

3) Even for Amorim personally it was far better game management than usual.

Benjamin Sesko was unfortunate to be sacrificed at half-time but Manuel Ugarte helped ensure the midfield battle remained even on one of his better performances. Matheus Cunha, Mason Mount and Leny Yoro were more like-for-like replacements which introduced fresh legs. And Bruno Fernandes coming off was surprising, even before taking into account who was replacing him.

Kobbie Mainoo is still having his minutes bizarrely rationed but a cameo in which he won a free-kick and a corner while running down the clock was encouraging. He brought belated control to a game defined by chaos.

4) Enzo Maresca, as the scriptures dictate, must adopt the crisis baton. And good lord was this a full-blown mid-life crisis.

Robert Sanchez being sent off in the fifth minute was not ideal. Being critical, Robert Sanchez playing at all for a player trading entity which has spent £427billion on signings in the last three years is sub-optimal.

But we’re splitting hairs and never has a single human been more bald than when Maresca responded by removing two of his forwards to chuck on a keeper and another centre-half, thus shedding more than a quarter of his starting XI within seven minutes of kick off.

It does appear that an injury had befallen Cole Palmer, who himself was removed in the 21st. Yet Maresca himself said after the game that the England international had undergone fitness tests in the morning and “was not 100%”, so quite why Estevao Willian, Pedro Neto and any semblance of Chelsea’s pace and width had to also be abandoned is a mystery.

Becoming the first manager in Premier League history to make as many as three substitutions in the opening 21 minutes of a game almost entirely because of a single mismanaged red card is hilariously damning.

5) Maresca even openly and apparently without a modicum of professional shame admitted after the game that “all the plan went in the bin after the red card”, as if that isn’t a massively embarrassing indictment on him as the coach.

It is honestly difficult to recall a worse example of management in an entire half of Premier League football.

6) It transmitted a message of panic to the players, a collective headloss from which they could not fully recover.

In the 13 minutes between the first two substitutes coming on and Palmer going off, Chelsea’s combined pass success rate was 53%. Every defender and keeper Filip Jorgensen was guilty of ceding possession in dangerous areas under pressure from an invigorated Manchester United as such a wholesale change of shape and personnel evoked a sense of hysteria and doubt.

At one point in the first half a remarkably Italian voice could be heard screaming “eh, eh, eh, Reece take the throw-in” when Wesley Fofana had the ball in his hands on the halfway line. It epitomised a side being micro-managed into oblivion.

The red card created the sort of problem coaches tend to try and alleviate. Maresca exacerbated it.

7) It was a lightning quick Manchester United start. In the opening couple of minutes a cross barely evaded Sesko in the area, skidding across the turf and onto the head of Bryan Mbeumo to force a save from Sanchez.

Soon after, a long Altay Bayindir kick was flicked on by Sesko for Mbeumo to chase, round Sanchez and elicit the red card.

There was a sense at that point that Manchester United had to capitalise on their ascendancy. A desperation, even, summed up by Matthijs de Ligt shooting from range in the 11th minute as if trying desperately to break a low block in second half stoppage time.

But then a fine move culminated in Noussair Mazraoui crossing for Patrick Dorgu’s clever head back into the centre as Bruno Fernandes timed his run impeccably to convert.

Dorgu is bafflingly important in terms of the attacking structures of a club which spent £200m on new forwards this summer, but early on he was excellent and there is hope that, at 20, those fundamentals can eventually be polished and harnessed.

8) Casemiro going through the back of Enzo Fernandez near the halfway line as both the Argentinean and Chelsea as an entity posed precisely zero threat had an immediate air of the foreboding seemingly random brief highlight on Match of the Day.

The second yellow about half an hour later for an arguably soft but ultimately completely avoidable and entirely stupid foul on Andrey Santos confirmed it.

If a 33-year-old 78-cap Brazil international five-time European champion doesn’t realise he can’t slide tackle from behind or grab people and fall over then he probably can’t be relied upon consistently in a competent midfield, never mind this Manchester United one.

9) There was at least a parting gift as Casemiro headed Manchester United into a two-goal lead shortly before indulging in the sort of foolishness which really ought to be beyond his years.

Filip Jorgensen is presumably still watching and waiting for that ball to come down into the gaggle of players while forgetting he has the slight in-built advantage over them in being able to use his hands.

It was atrocious goalkeeping and Chelsea will remain completely unserious while they steadfastly refuse to acknowledge that having a good, even just reliable presence between the posts is quite important.

10) A couple of minutes after that goal, Manchester United should have had another. Amad won the ball from Fofana in Chelsea’s defensive third and raced towards goal with Jorgensen venturing comedically and pointedly far off his line to close the angle.

Sesko was waiting unmarked in the middle but the ball never came, with Casemiro’s red ultimately falling on the Slovenian’s head.

Another goalless game will delight the growing critics but his flick-on for the Sanchez red proved decisive and there were some bright moments of link-up play from a striker whose development cannot have been aided by these stop-start beginnings.

11) It did seem at one point as though Chelsea’s best hope would be for the game to be abandoned due to a waterlogged pitch.

Or beyond that, maybe for them to have a semblance of an attacking idea beyond just giving the ball to Joao Pedro and expecting him to dribble past five or six players before scoring.

Even when Casemiro was sent off and parity in terms of numbers was restored, Chelsea were in no position to capitalise after those perplexing early changes. It’s almost like giving up all hope on a game after five minutes because of one setback is unnecessary.

12) Maresca did still have two substitutions left, so obviously brought on Tyrique George and Malo Gusto – a forward they tried to sell this summer and a full-back when theoretically chasing a result.

It meant £48.5m Jamie Gittens, £40m and incredibly motivated Alejandro Garnacho and Marc Guiu, who has not played since being recalled from his loan at Sunderland almost three weeks ago, remained on the bench.

The game management was poor but that man management is diabolical.

13) The one positive to come out of this game for Chelsea was the performance of Reece James at right-back. A few of his deliveries were exceptional, including the cross Trevoh Chalobah converted late on.

It doesn’t feel like that will be enough to convince Maresca it might be worth deploying the very good right-back at right-back more often but still.

14) Manchester United were excellent defensively, with De Ligt continuing to grow into his leadership role. The hosts wouldn’t have held out without him. He’d have even given Gabby Agbonlahor and Gary Taylor-Fletcher a challenge in this mood.

15) That is a bruising week for Chelsea, their first run of three winless games since February.

Maresca does have credit in the bank through Champions League qualification and some lesser trophies but it has been an underwhelming start to the season with an even shorter title challenge than the one the Italian spent most of last season writing off anyway.

He was right when he said these players were “not ready” to compete for that level of silverware; there needs to be a degree of introspection in accepting that the same should be said of him too.

16) This was the first Premier League game Manchester United have won without scoring in the second half since March 2024. It inherently feels more sustainable than relying on stoppage-time penalties and late individual heroics to get through.

For a team and a coach basically learning how to win together it was potentially transformative how they did it. They could also entirely feasibly follow this up with defeats to Brentford and Sunderland before the international break, because ultimately inferring anything about this club based on a single result or performance is really stupid and only the sort of thing their billionaire owners should indulge in.