Goalless at Goodison, 2024 reflections and a look ahead to Fulham and Ipswich
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The Athletic FC Podcast Network. It's Straight Outta Cobham, a show about Chelsea FC from The Athletic. Coming up, hey, the last trip to Goodison didn't end in defeat, but Chelsea aren't top of the tree at Christmas. We'll talk 2024 and some more. Available for free wherever you get your podcasts and free on The Athletic. And for the final time this year, this is Straight Outta Cobham.

This is it then. Gang last show before Christmas. Last one of the year. We're going to hear from a few different voices today, but it's me and Liam Toomey taking care of most of the business. Liam, how are you doing? I'm good. I still feel cold and I didn't even go to Goodison. You looked filthy, didn't you? Absolutely rotten. It was like Sean Dyche ordered that weather for the game, I think. Let's get a premature adjudication from you, Liam, for the last time this year.

Are we allowed non-Chelsea ones? Yeah, I've got a non-Chelsea one too. I bet we've got exactly the same one. My premature adjudication is that Everton are going to keep the most clean sheets in the Premier League this season. Lucy's laughing because mine is Everton will set a Premier League record for the most 0-0 draws in a season. So pretty adjacent. Man, you couldn't pay me to watch them every week. Absolutely rotten. Let's talk about that game to kick off today's show.

Scrapping from Beto and Mangala. Played it through to Lindstrom. Tough control, but he managed to do it. Sabo, it's got to be a goal. Boy, it would have been. What a block!

Chelsea, you absolute Christmas hero. So very much Everton nil, Chelsea nil. The old lady had a bad case of wind on Sunday and that coupled with Sean Dyche ensured there was little to no fun to be had on what is likely Chelsea's last visit to Goodison Park. Plenty of correspondence has come in. You can find us on Blue Sky and X at SO Cobham Pod or you can email us SOC at theathletic.com.

S24 says, tough game. Had to be on our better defensive game tonight. Big up Sanchez. Will this game give confidence to our defence? Colin says, I'd like to think that Maresca, the savant mastermind that he's proving to be, asked his players for a draw to keep the team in second and further deflect the title contenders narrative. Stroke of genius.

from the well-dressed Italian boss. Is he well-dressed? Not on the touchline particularly, but anyway. Karma with Palmer says, Cucurea is a big miss. Not a sentence I thought I'd say at the beginning of the season. Liam, how significant was that absence in the Chelsea defence? Yeah, I think it was significant, but they did pretty well without him, didn't they? I thought that makeshift defensive line-up worked really hard to earn...

clean sheet. Everton didn't threaten them constantly, but they did produce the occasional moment where they would have really fancied themselves to nick. And I'm sure they thought they were going to nick all three points, as they have done against Chelsea at Goodison five times in the previous six visits. But Robert Sanchez came up big a couple of times.

Tosin came up with a monumental block in the second half, which he celebrated in true Giorgio Chiellini fashion afterwards. And I think that said a bit about the backbone of this team. It's a fair point to say this is the type of game Chelsea would have lost last year because they lost this exact game last year and several times in the years before that. So,

If you've been really harsh, you could say missed opportunity. They could have gone top for a fleeting moment, although given the way Liverpool took care of Spurs, it wouldn't have been for long. But in reality, conditions, the opponent, I thought what Maresca said afterwards was pretty much spot on in terms of the way they played and how he felt about it and how Chelsea should feel about themselves going forward.

Yeah, well worth remembering that it was only a week before that Everton took a point away from the Emirates. You mentioned Robert Sanchez there, Liam. A couple of great saves from him. Do we need to start putting a bit more respect on his name or is this just going to be even new? Is this the moment Mikhailo Mudrik's Chelsea career turned every week of is Robert Sanchez now a good goalkeeper?

I think this is just what it is week to week. He's capable of making very good saves. He's also capable of conceding goals he shouldn't concede. He's capable of making spectacular passes. And he's also capable of giving the ball straight to the opposition in dangerous areas. And we're going to see all of those things. Sometimes all in the same game. But we're going to see all of those things for as long as he's Chelsea's first choice goalkeeper, I think. I don't see him finding...

He might prove me wrong, but there's been a large body of evidence at this point to suggest this is kind of who he is as a goalkeeper at Premier League level. So I don't see him finding some higher level of consistency in terms of his performance. But it means there will be days where he comes up big for Chelsea. There will be days where he's the reason they drop points, but it

I think on Sunday, he was one of the big reasons why a draw didn't turn into a loss. Particularly that save from Jack Harrison in the first half, I thought was really important. Because that was another one where you could look at and think, was that a Pellegrini offside malfunction that Michael Cox spoke about last month in The Athletic?

Another free runner from a deep position at the back post. It was a wide open shot and he got down really well to save it. And that was Everton's entire game plan. Just frustrate Chelsea and try and exploit a mistake at the other end, either born of the conditions or born of Chelsea sloppiness. And that's when he needs your goalkeeper to step up. And he did.

You surely did. James and Kyle, both on a similar theme here. James says they were worse in attack than against Newcastle in the Carabao Cup. Why weren't there any tactical adjustments? Kyle says given the size of the squad and the options on the bench, why did Maresca wait until the 73rd minute to make a change and then only use

two of the subs that was interesting wasn't it Liam because he generally uses his bench a bit earlier and with a few more people coming on probably didn't help that Madweke didn't have a good game when he came on and Nkunku couldn't get into it but would you have made more changes and earlier?

So no, really, it's very much of the pep school, isn't it? Of, I like what I'm seeing, so I won't make a single substitution as long as the 11 out there are doing what I want them to do. But while Chelsea, I thought, were doing a lot of things reasonably well in the horrible conditions at Goodison, they weren't creating anywhere near enough, albeit against a very good, very disciplined team.

Everton team who'd clearly done, I mean, Sean Dyche had clearly done his homework on how Chelsea played and knew exactly where to squeeze, knew exactly who to squeeze. But Chelsea, I think, made it slightly easier for them. And this is where we keep coming back to the Malo Gusto jumping into the pocket tactical gambit. It doesn't really work, certainly not in an attacking sense, against the most organised defensive teams. And it actually...

not only inhibits him, but it inhibits Cole Palmer and Chelsea's entire attack. Because Everton just didn't have to worry about Gusto. He was the one guy they were kind of happy enough to allow to receive the ball on the half turn inside their half because they were confident that he wouldn't make the passes that would really hurt them. And he didn't consistently. His passing was not as precise. And that's

not a slight on him it's just not his it's not his course skill set he's having to try and learn this you know people spend all their lives trying to be number tens and never make it to the premier league so to ask a fullback to try and do it is not easy and the fact that they didn't have to worry about gusto at all meant that they could squeeze palmer and sancho even more and they are

Chelsea's two biggest creators. If they were going to split Everton open, it was going to be one of those two guys most likely playing the passes. And yet Palmer just never got that room. He got fouled a lot whenever he was at risk of manoeuvring himself into a position where he could cause Evan problems. And it looked like some of Chelsea's most dangerous moments were actually winning free kicks in dangerous areas rather than

really carving Everton open. There was that one sweeping move, wasn't there, where Chelsea got a bit lucky with a bounce on the halfway line. Neto got free, slipped in Palmer, crossed for Jackson and it was a good save from Pickford. I wouldn't really hold that against Jackson, to be honest. The ball was slightly behind him. He did well to get it on target and just picked for his legs really quickly and saved it. But that was about as good as it got.

in open play for Chelsea because they just couldn't get that fluency and you have to credit Everton for that but I think Chelsea could have done things from the bench that maybe could have asked more questions of Everton and the fact that Gusto was jumping into the pocket also meant Enzo Fernandes was playing deeper and not that kind of box crashing midfield role that we've seen him inhabit in recent weeks and score goals from arriving late in the box that

Maresca's selection took that away as well. So, yeah, I was a bit surprised he didn't change things, but I think it was more just, I don't fancy our chances of winning this game. Let's not lose it. And they didn't lose it.

Yeah, so progress then. We're pointing out since the beginning of October, Everton have kept seven clean sheets in the Premier League. That's the most of any team across Europe's big five leagues. They put an end to Chelsea's 15-match scoring run in the Premier League, despite the Blues having nearly 75% possession in the match. Well, next up, it is Fulham on Boxing Day in a West London derby. Next up for us, though, we're going to round up some other Blues news.

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Liam, I wanted to get your take on the Mikhailo Mudrik situation. I don't know if we have any update other than the fact that he was in Riyadh watching the boxing. I guess he's got a bit of spare time on his hands. What have you made of it all? Yeah, so I was off last week. It was the latest example of there's never a good week to take time off from Chelsea because there's always a story. And then I got ill, which I can highly recommend to anyone.

get in on your time off it's just a joy so I was watching the developments through a kind of foggy fluey haze and that was quite appropriate I think because there's still so much that we don't know about this story and I think it's going to remain that way for for quite a long time until until a decision is communicated and then perhaps appealed and you know the the process

moves on. So we'll wait and see. But it's another kind of depressing beat in the Mikhailo Midrick story at Chelsea, isn't it? And if things play out a certain way, it could be the worst one yet in terms of its long-lasting ramifications for his career at Stamford Bridge.

It just hasn't happened for him. And it's a shame. He seemed to be having slightly more positive moments in the last couple of months, albeit largely in the Conference League. But he hasn't factored in Maresca's Premier League plans for quite some time. And maybe the saddest reflection on all of this is that his absence doesn't really affect Chelsea in the games that matter most. The person who's, or the only party that's really affected is him.

Yeah, really sad. Let's hope there's a resolution to it one way or another fairly quickly. So that was Mudrik. Just to round up...

on the academy action for 2024. The under-21s played their final game of the year on Saturday. They had to come from behind to beat Bournemouth at Kingsmeadow in the Premier League Cup. Frankie Runham with a stoppage time winner, but the story here really was Keanu Dyer's goal. It was absolutely magnificent to make it 1-1 just after half-time. He was about 30 yards out, smacked it in, but he ran the show. Absolutely phenomenal performance from him. He's definitely one to watch.

in the future Liam it's not a quiz but for two points do you know who his dad is

Is it Lloyd Dyer? It surely is. Yeah. Leicester, MK Dons, Burton, former winger. I think I remember being told that by a certain Matt Davis Adams. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I do repeat myself. Just ask my wife, but yeah, keep an eye on Keanu Dyer. I don't know if he can get much more first team action this season, but he is definitely one to watch. All right. Next today, we're going to review 2024.

Well, it's been quite a year in the world of a Chelsea football club. Let's take a look back. With the help of a few of our friends, Simon Johnson sent in his reflections. Well, season's greetings, everyone. At least there's no trip to Wolverhampton on Christmas Eve. Nanny Madwecky wouldn't have enjoyed that. If you remember this time last year, Chelsea had the delight of a trip to Wolves just on the eve of Christmas. But, um...

That's not the case this year. And let's reflect on 2024 and let's talk about, I think, the compare and contrast of where the Chelsea team was last season and where they are now as a football club. And funnily enough, I think Everton is a nice bookends kind of situation. Can you remember when they won 6-0 at Stamford Bridge last

And what an amazing performance that was, by the way, Cole Palmer doing his thing as per usual. But I was there in the post-match press conference when, of course, it was overshadowed by the penalty incident involving Nani Madweki and Nicholas Jackson.

or fighting to take a penalty that everyone knew in the ground was Cole Palmer's to take. And it ended up being a press conference dominated by questions about the incident. We are in a professional environment, we are in Chelsea and we need to behave in a different way, thinking in the collective

And no, being focused only on the individual achievement. And a certain ex-Chelsea employee calling out the handling of that press conference by the press office team as Pochettino complained that all he was asked about essentially in this press conference was about the penalty incident.

You all won one press conference. You stopped the press conference. We didn't stop the press conference. You stopped the press conference. The question was in this way. In this way. In this way. S*** management of a press conference. Fast forward to Chelsea's last game before Christmas and it was a totally different performance against Everton. Gritty, not particularly impressive, but they dug in, they got a point.

And why am I comparing the two? How can I compare a 6-0 win over Everton versus a 0-0 draw with Everton, albeit at Goodison Park this time around? And for me, the reason why I'm sort of picking out these two incidents is that the secret, I think, behind Chelsea's improved performance, improved standing in the league table is...

that Maresca has built a much better team spirit, team ethic, coached team to now handle the tougher moments and to be together as one.

And yes, Everton were there for the taking when Chelsea took them on at Stamford Bridge all those months ago. But here they were at Giddleston Park. It was Chelsea's kryptonite, as I described it on X. Not only Everton's traditional ugly style of play, but the horrible windy conditions. Obviously the feel-good factor in the stands following Everton's successful takeover.

being announced a few days before. Everything was set up for Chelsea to lose this game, as they did, of course, at Goodison Park 12 months earlier. But I took this performance as a sign of how Chelsea improved throughout 2024. But certainly, so this sort of voice note is kind of twofold. On one hand, it's highlighting one of the most bonkers incidents ever.

of 2024 how Chelsea can win with an amazing performance against Everton it kind of summed up the Pochettino era that it was all a bit bonkers all a bit chaotic that even in a good moment there was a bad moment

Whereas there's a totally different Chelsea that are together as one. They're all fighting for each other on the pitch, not fighting against each other. Anyway, let's hope I continue to be upbeat in 2025. Chelsea has certainly given me every reason to and so is...

Karl Palmer FC. No, they're not Karl Palmer FC anymore. There's far too many players performing well for Chelsea to be in the position they're in. So, yeah, but let's keep 2025. Phil could factor up and I'll see if I can care about the quizzes, but I can't promise you anything. And here's Luke Bosh with his thoughts on the Blues year. Hello, long time voice note listener, first time voice note recorder here. So I hope I do this right.

Reviewing Chelsea's 2024, certainly an easier task, I think, than reviewing 2022 and 2023 Chelsea this year. The men's side have been on a real upward trajectory in comparison. It kind of feels like every time, you know, the football has been on,

There's been a general feeling of positivity and good vibes around the club. You know, sort of thinking January to late May and then basically once this new season started in August have been really great periods. But weirdly, the summer, you know, the departure of Mauricio Pochettino, the arrival of Enzo Marescares' replacement, two decisions that I think were not universally popular at the time, kind of

led to a downer on the end of the 23-24 campaign heading into the start of this new campaign. But

what Enzo Maresca and Chelsea have done to begin this campaign nearly halfway through now has been remarkable. I think they've kind of defied expectations with where they are in the league table and the football itself, even aside from the results, has been top quality. And you can really see the development of this team. And that is kind of really what they are. There's such a sense of unity around the club. But, you know, kind of looking back on the year, reflecting on

Trying to pick a moment, I thought, would try and best sum it up. And I can't stop thinking about, really, Chelsea's 6-0 win over Everton back in April. Obviously, that was under Pochettino, but...

It was at the start of that really, really strong end to the season that saw Chelsea finish sixth and would have qualified for the Europa League had Manchester United not won the FA Cup, but a sixth place finish nonetheless. And obviously the manner of the win, so dominating. And of course, Cole Palmer. I think it was his consecutive Stamford Bridge hat-tricks for him and just...

The odd brown play, and a flick to Jackson, it's back to Palmer, it's lovely, it's Cole Palmer at his very best. What a goal!

single-handedly undoing Everton. The nutmeg on Jared Brantthwaite, the flick to Nicholas Jackson and then the first time finish past Jordan Pickford, it was absolutely sublime and I think that performance, his performance, I think really laid down a marker and it was kind of like, okay, these boys can play. These boys are serious. You know, this is

I think Chelsea were going to end the 2024 calendar year as probably the fourth best team in the Premier League and that's about right. But that game...

And obviously the third goal as well, you know, the lobbing of Jordan Pickford to complete a perfect hat trick in the first half was absolutely sensational. And I think, you know, let's not forget, you know, the other moments within that match, Nicholas Jackson's goal, bringing it down in the air, volleying it or half volleying it past Jordan Pickford, a sublime goal, a real proper striker's goal. And then, yeah, Alfie Gilchrist, you know, a Cobham Academy graduate scoring his first career goal.

just was really the icing on the cake and I think

I think that made the league sit up and take notice. I know that was followed by a disappointing FA Cup semi-final against Manchester City shortly after but I think that's really when people started to take Chelsea seriously and of course the run that followed winning so many games in a row to end the campaign I think that Everton win really sparked a large part of that and Chelsea have obviously continued to build on that and I think

It's a great marker for just where Chelsea are right now, even though it was now eight months ago. But yeah, I think overall, if you're looking at a word cloud of Chelsea's 2024, it's all very positive words. They're certainly a young team, but trending in the right direction. And it looks like they have room to grow and, of course, spearheaded by Chelsea.

But that's not to say they're not a team. I think we've seen, especially in recent weeks, that they are capable of performing when Cole Palmer's maybe not at his best because the talents that Chelsea have bought are starting to grow, starting to emerge online.

you know Nicholas Jackson Jadon Sancho Pedro Neto and you know a word for Moises Caicedo who I think is so close to being Chelsea's most valuable player to be honest I'm very excited to see what the future holds for him and for Chelsea of course but yeah I think bring on 2025

A couple of you got in touch. Jeremy says, if you told me Chelsea were going to be in second place and somehow potentially challenging for the title, I would have laughed right in your face. A great turnaround. Patience paid off. Peachy says, 2024 has been very refreshing. Good to see a real team coming together with improving results on the pitch. Hope 2025 is the year we make the next big step up. Dan says, really positive year. Young squad coming together with one or two additions could challenge for trophies next

in seasons to come. Lucy has very helpfully divided it into basically the standout moments of each month. January started with a 4-0 win against Preston in the FA Cup. They are checking here. It looks as though Fernandes is on, played on by Liam Lindsay. He can smile and Chelsea have a fourth and they're through to round four very comfortably in the end.

an emphatic victory Preston blown away in the second half for me Liam Michael Golding shaking the fourth official's hand before he came onto the pitches up there with the highlights of the year we've also got the sixth one against Middlesbrough in the league cup I don't know about you but that was a cleansing experience for me having been at the Riverside for the first leg which was

one of Chelsea's worst performances in recent memory yeah probably Cole Palmer's worst game of the year as well wasn't it it missed just a host of incredible chances in that game yeah just on the golden one they raise them right at Cobham don't they nice lads polite lovely little boy yes yes and then he

Went to Leicester in the summer. February, I reckon this was the low light of the year. What about you, Liam? The League Cup final defeat really should have been a League Cup final win. The first prize of springtime is heading home to Anfield. Liverpool for a record 10th time. Liverpool as if by right. Liverpool again. Carabao Cup winners 2024. Yeah, it was an agonising one and played out

in the most banter club way possible in the end, with Jurgen Klopp doing something that I've still never seen any other coach do in a final and just throw on a load of 18-year-olds, which I think introduced a dynamic that we don't see in cup finals, where one team feels like they're playing with house money and the other team

that went into the game as the underdogs suddenly feel like losing is not just a disappointment, but an absolute humiliation and kind of clam up in front of our eyes. And that's what I felt happened to Chelsea. They were a bit unfortunate in the way that game was subsequently presented because Liverpool still had the best, most experienced player on the pitch in Virgil van Dijk, who was showing again this season that he's still pretty damn good and ended up basically winning the game.

But I do think while it was really tough for those players to take at the time, I do think that experience has helped them and steeled them for what's come next. And I think what we're seeing now from that same core of players is partly influenced by what they endured at Wembley and the determination not to feel that again.

Yeah, and they recovered fairly quickly. It was just a couple of days later that Conor Gallagher got a stoppage time winner against Leeds in the FA Cup at Stamford Bridge. 3-2 then.

to fire Chelsea to all for quarter-finals again. Then in March, it was Leicester in the FA Cup quarter-final. It was kind of a bonkers game, wasn't it, Liam? Axel Desazie with a contender for the world's greatest own goal. But little did we know how significant a game that would be because of who was in the away dugout. Yeah. First look at Maresca Ball at Stamford Bridge. I don't remember being usually impressed by Leicester that day. Felt like they were very open, Chelsea fans.

kind of played through them whenever they wanted. And it was only once Chelsea were 2-0 up that Leicester really started to look a little bit threatening. And the disaster in goal completely changed the tenor of the entire game. It's still one of the funniest things I've ever seen live at a football match because in the press box, I was looking right in line with it, with his decision to go back to the goalkeeper. And I saw Leicester

The split second before it happens, you know what's going to happen. Patson Daka is going to push him in the back just as he kicks this. And it turned a nice, delicate pitching wedge into a blunt five irons. As Daka comes in on De Sassi. Oh, he's caught Sanchez. And from absolutely nothing, Leicester City are on the board.

Flew straight into his own net and it became a little bit anxious around Stamford Bridge, especially when Steffi Mavadidi got a really, really nice goal to make it 2-2. But it never, I don't know, it never felt like Chelsea were in danger of losing the game. It just felt like they were being very silly. And eventually I remember, yeah, Kani Chukwemeka's goal, Cole Palmer's little backheel was absolutely superb. There's Kani Chukwemeka.

He'll take the return. Great chance. Oh, Chelsea back in front. Maybe that was the first time Maresca looked at Palmer and thought, oh yeah, if I get this job, I should probably build a team around this guy. But yeah, fun little cup tie and a fun little rally to Maresca at Chelsea. Although I don't think what we've seen from Maresca at Chelsea was particularly similar to what Leicester were doing.

Yeah, it was a fun game though. In April, we had an even funner game. The 4-3 against Manchester United at the start of the month. Was that this one as well? I had a good run. Cole Palmer, wasn't it? No one marking Palmer again! Hatchelow! Cole wins! And...

Sensational game! Absolutely unbelievable. 101st minute, the winning goal. I think that's one of my favourite games I've ever commentated on. And it kind of fit with the whole Pochettino vibe, right Liam? As Simon said in his voice note, it was just chaotic, sort of from minute one really. One of the most gloriously dumb football matches I've seen ever.

Both teams deserve to lose in a lot of ways. Yeah, two completely stupid teams who just didn't even attempt to manage the game. And if they tried to manage the game, I think wouldn't have had any idea how to.

And yeah, the way United lost it was just remarkable. At 3-2, I remember it didn't look remotely like Chelsea had an idea of how to get back into it. Mason Mount had come on, he was getting booed, but he was helping United keep the ball. For once, they looked a little bit composed. And then all of a sudden, Chelsea put the ball out wide. Madweke versus Dalot beat him to the line and Dalot did what Dalot has done

quite often for Manchester United in his career and made a silly decision. And yeah, as soon as Palmer got an opportunity to impact proceedings, I remember him looking annoyed when he scored that penalty. His second penalty of the game, he scored the exact same penalty twice and Andre Anana went the wrong way twice. But as he went to get the ball at 3-3, he just looked, why are we in this position? He looked personally insulted that he was being required to

dig Chelsea out of the hole, but dig them out he did in the most spectacular way possible. And that corner, the way United switched off, again, it was one that we had an amazing view of from the press box right behind the line of Palmer's shot. You haven't heard many eruptions like that at Stamford Bridge. That volume in recent years, that moment was pretty special to be in the ground for.

It's the only time that Sam Parker and I have ever shook hands after a commentary. We were so surprised. We just didn't know what to do. So we shook hands. Very strange. Also in April, it was a 6-0 against Everton that Cole Palmer scored four in and the FA Cup semi-final defeat to Man City, which was another Wembley heartache for Chelsea. In May...

the standard six-point return from Tottenham by beating them 2-0. And then on the last day of the season, the goal of the season, Liam, surely from Moises Caicedo from the halfway line. There's a long way, Jepa!

Absolutely sensational goal from Moises Caicedo. Yeah, there was a touch of the Dejan Stankovic to it against Manuel Neuer in the Champions League a few years ago, if you remember. I think I wrote that at the time. Although it wasn't on the volley, but it was another one of those the goalkeeper tries to clear it, stranded. And it was just wonderful, quick thinking from Caicedo. It really, I think, put...

a bow on Caicedo's personal renaissance as well. The last three or four months of that season, he was really, really good. He was one of the main reasons why Chelsea finally started to get it together and look like something coherent under Pochettino.

And yeah, for him to get a goal in that way, especially having been denied what was a very nice goal against Tottenham at Tottenham way back in November, it was ruled out because of a VAR offside. For him to open his account with an even bigger banger was nice. And yeah, he's gone from strength to strength, I think, this year from that.

Yeah, best player in the Premier League for me this season. So a couple of days after that, Mauricio Pochettino goes, Enzo Maresca comes in. I think there's a bit of a collective meh about that. How wrong it looks like we were. A new season starts with a defeat against Manchester City. I mean, goodness me, how do you lose to Manchester City? And then, Liam, at the end of August, you were at Molyneux.

This is up there with the highlights of the year for me. Noni Madueke's memorable description of Wolverhampton. And then he goes and gets himself some goals. Cole Palmer gets four assists. What was it like at Molineux that day? Not s***, presumably. Madueke! The match ball is his. Wolverhampton is his. Lucky boy. Madueke went and got himself a hat-trick and then came out afterwards and said, oh, Wolves is actually quite nice.

which I thought would only infuriate them more, surely. But yeah, it was a fun game, completely mad game, in that I couldn't entirely tell what was going to happen with Wolves and Gary O'Neill. But in the first half, they threatened to overwhelm Chelsea with physicality. And you thought, oh, if this is what Chelsea are going to be, it looks like more of a continuation of Pochettino last year, where they've got talent, they've got technical ability, but they're very brittle players.

They can be got at. There were a lot of away games that looked like that first half last season. And they were actually a little bit lucky to be 2-2 at halftime. It was an early header from Jackson, from a corner of all things. And then that brilliant, brilliant lob from Cole Palmer. The spectacular long goal kick from Robert Sanchez. Lovely little flick.

from Jackson to Palmer and just wonderful, instinctive first-time love. They got them in at half-time at 2-2 and then it was just completely different. The second half was a completely different game. Chelsea were far more controlled in what they were trying to do. Moresca's system was far better.

Not just easier to see, but much better executed. And Wolves just went to pieces in terms of their structure and Chelsea picked them apart. And that was really when we first saw the damage that Palmer could do in that right pocket rather than out on the right wing. Getting the ball in that area and just passing to Madweke every time. And Madweke kept scoring and Wolves eventually lost all control and it ended up being very, very easy.

September was all about Cole Palmer again, that 40 win against Brighton at Stamford Bridge when he scored four goals in 20 minutes. First one was about 30 seconds after I'd said on commentary, Palmer's not really done much in this game so far. Cut to Michael Jordan. And I took that personally, said Cole and went and scored four times. October, probably the low light of this season, the defeat at Newcastle in the Carabao Cup.

November, Liam, the 8-0 against Noah, that kind of sums up Chelsea in the Conference League, right? It's just not a fair fight. Yeah, every game has a vaguely testimonial feel and Christopher Nkunku just sort of disinterestedly rampaging...

against opponents that aren't qualified to deal with him and sort of reluctantly blowing up a balloon in front of the fans after he scored another goal. Yeah, Chelsea should win the Conference League. They're way too good for it. All of these group games, not just the Nile one, have shown that.

They've got far more firepower, far more depth than every other team in the competition without Cole Palmer, which makes the decision of whether they want or whether Cole Palmer wants to get a winner's medal in the Conference League in January when they get to make some tweaks to the squad all the more interesting. But whatever happens, if they don't win that competition, it will be a big disappointment. Those group games have been very useful for them.

in terms of keeping this second string a certain degree of fit and sharp and in rhythm.

degree of satisfaction that comes from just pummeling a helpless opponent. Yeah, and that was the same again in December when they took on Shamrock Rovers and put five past them last week. Highlight so far this month though, Liam, was the win at Spurs. You were on hand for that one. Another chaotic game. Spurs helping Chelsea out, but Chelsea thoroughly deserved the win. Cole Palmer. Ice cold.

Yeah, I mean, it feels like Spurs can only be part of chaotic games. If they're involved, that's just what it's going to be. But it did feel like that was the signature result that Maresca had been waiting for. Not just that they beat Spurs, because as we're seeing, it's not necessarily that difficult to beat Spurs if you're a good team. But coming back from 2-0 down, the two slips from Kukurea,

as ruthlessly as, well, more ruthlessly than you could ever expect in those first 20 minutes. And the fact they never lost their cool. Great performance from Jadon Sancho, really showing what he could be for this team. And just, yeah, stepping up in a hostile environment and not just winning in the end, but winning in a kind of mocking, banterous fashion, just showing how not intimidated they were

by the situation. I think they deserve to be talked about after that game as a team that might be in a title race, not necessarily this year, but soon because they are showing the raw elements of what you need to compete over a long season.

There you go then. That was 2024 in review. Hopefully that's helped Liam out with his piece a little bit. Head to theathletic.com slash ChelseaBod to check out all his excellent work and all the other great stuff that we've got up there, Chelsea and otherwise related.

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Right, before we go, just a quick word on the fixtures that will happen while we're away. We've got 10 days or so just to have a bit of a break. Boxing Day, Fulham coming to Stamford Bridge. I don't think you'd even call this a potential banana skin, can you, Liam? They've drawn at Spurs in Liverpool, won at Forest, should have got something at Manchester City. This promises to be a difficult game. Yeah, they're a good team, Fulham, and it's a London derby. Not just a London derby, it's a West London derby, which...

have always been funny games for Chelsea to play, whether it's Brentford, Fulham or QPR. They're all a bit one-sided in terms of the stature. So Chelsea have always had this kind of dynamic where they're going to get the other team's best shot, regardless of whether they're prepared to give the best account of themselves. They're going to get the other team's best shot and they have to be ready for it. Fulham will be bang up for this. And they are playing quite well. They are well coached.

And if Chelsea aren't quite on it, they're more than equipped to take points off them. As Brentford were, I think Chelsea had to be good to beat Brentford. And even as good as they were, Brentford managed to get a goal towards the end. A nice goal on the breakaway that made it a bit nervy. I expect a similar type of game against Fulham, albeit Fulham play in a different way.

And they'll probably have to try and grind it out a bit. And then the final game of the year is on the 30th of December. This one's in the evening at Portman Road against...

Ipswich, they haven't won at home all season, Liam. They've lost to the likes of Crystal Palace and Bournemouth and Everton, Liverpool, Newcastle, most recent winners there. Looks like a game that Chelsea should win, but I guess they're not going to go through the whole season without picking up a victory in front of their own fans. Do you think that we can get away without referencing Ed Sheeran at all in this mini chat? It's not going to come from me. Not going to come from me, Matt.

Well, I mean, this could be revenge for injuring Christopher Nkunku in pre-season 2023. A deep cut for those who remember. Yeah, Kieran McKenna's done a very nice job with Ipswich in terms of keeping their spirits up, I think. Because it's hard when you're a great story like they are, that people didn't expect to get to the Premier League in the first place.

And you are playing well for what you have, but you're still losing and sometimes losing by quite big scores. It's tough to keep going, but I haven't really sensed a drop off in Ipswich's application or performance week to week. You know, you do sense it with Southampton that there's like an existential crisis among that group of players. We can't play this way. Why does he keep making us do this? And it was just getting uglier and uglier under Russell Martin.

That doesn't seem to have been happening with Ipswich. And so it will be a lively game. It will be a very lively crowd. Whether there'll be any personal motivation for Kieran McKenna, having been someone that Chelsea looked at before they appointed Maresca, I don't know. But it will be a tricky game, but it's also the kind of game that Chelsea should really be looking at as...

as one where they can pick it switch off because the good teams have picked them off they do make mistakes more mistakes than most Premier League teams in what they're trying to do when they're trying to build from the back I think Chelsea will be very aware of how they can maybe press them into mistakes and take advantage of those so yeah should win

Yeah, it'll be the first time that Chelsea have been at Portman Road since a goalless draw in April 2002. John Terry and Marcel Desailly at the back, a front three of Hasselbank, Zola and Forsell that day. Faneedi George in the Ipswich line-up, not

lots of good stuff. You're just gratuitously listing all this because you know you're not going to be able to do a quiz on it before we come back, aren't you? Yeah, yeah, quite. Yeah, yeah. I don't have any John McGreal related questions for you, unfortunately. Maybe for the return game. Who knows? That's going to wrap things up for today. Then, as I say, head to theathletic.com slash ChelseaPod to sign up. If you aren't currently a subscriber, you can read Liam's post-Everton piece online.

Enzo Maresca is content, but are Chelsea a false second? No, they're an actual second, Liam. There's loads of other great Chelsea content up there as well. If you'd like to leave us a five-star review, up a podcast, Spotify, wherever you get your pods, that all helps us grow the show. And you can get in touch with us on Blue Sky X and by our email, soc at theathletic.com. Thank you for listening to us in 2024. We really appreciate it. We've had some lovely,

lovely feedback and we seem to be getting more and more popular which is a good thing but we can always do with more listeners so tell a friend if you know somebody who might enjoy the podcast thanks to Learman to Lucy to Dave to Luke to Simon to Jesse to everybody else who's been with us throughout the year but mainly to you listener we appreciate you very much and we'll speak to you in 2025 bye for now The Athletic FC Podcast Network

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