Palmer and Gusto sink lacklustre Everton to end Chelsea's winless run

"A win for Chelsea, a much-needed once after four games without, and in many ways a routine one and yet it was also a game that highlighted the oddity of Enzo Maresca's side. He has a squad packed with extraordinary talent, capable of passages of exceptional football, but they are also wildly inconsistent, even within individual games. They won easily, could have won more easily, and also had spells when the game threatened to slip from their grasp."

"Chelsea have become extremely difficult to read. Every time it looks like everything might be coalescing into something coherent, perhaps even title-challenging, they stutter, and every time it looks like a blip might become a crisis, they embark on a run of positive form. When they drew against Arsenal late last month, despite being reduced to 10 men before half-time, it meant they had lost one in 12 in all competitions and it was possible to see them taking advantage if Arsenal faltered."

"Perhaps that level of inconsistency is inevitable with a squad so young; which is where it's worth remembering that their youth is a policy based not in economic necessity but a conscious decision to regard players as assets to be spun and sold at profit. The loss of Moises Caicedo, suspended for three league games after his red card against Arsenal, obviously has not helped, but he was available against Atalanta and could not maintain second-half control."

Chelsea combine extraordinary individual talent with stark inconsistency, producing excellent passages of play alongside erratic spells that threaten control. Results have fluctuated: a promising draw at Arsenal, subsequent losses to Leeds and Atalanta, and a draw at Bournemouth. League position slipped to fifth, eight points off the top, and the club sits 13th in its Champions League group. The squad’s youth is a deliberate trading policy rather than pure necessity. Key absences and limitations have mattered: Moises Caicedo faced suspension, Levi Colwill suffered an ACL injury, and Wesley Fofana’s limited use correlates with better results when he starts.

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