Chelsea’s £52m transfer experiment fails as Enzo Maresca sent huge Liam Delap message

Chelsea will take on Benfica in the FIFA Club World Cup round of 16 after seeing off Tunisian side Esperance in their final match of Group D.

The Blues have progressed as runners-up with six points, with two wins and one defeat in their three matches. Goals from Tosin Adarabioyo and Liam Delap in the first-half were added to in the latter stages of the game by Tyrique George. Enzo Maresca’s men qualified as runners-up in Group D.

With all of this being said, football.london takes a look at the main talking points to come from the Lincoln Financial Field, that endured record-breaking high temperatures throughout the day…

Delap sends Maresca message

The smile on Delap’s face said it all. After a couple of encouraging performances from Chelsea’s No.9 in the lead up to this game, Delap would have been desperate to open his account for the Blues against Esperance.

And that he did. Moments after Tosin had given Chelsea the lead against the Tunisians, the striker picked up the ball and produced a superb piece of footwork before he opened his body up and struck calmly into the bottom of the net.

With Nicolas Jackson serving the first game of his two-match ban, it was a real message to Maresca. Delap is ready. As predicted given his work with Maresca beforehand, the England Under-21s international suits the style down to a tee.

There is still of course an adaptation period for Delap but, equally, he seems to have taken to it like a duck to water. He was brought off an hour into the match in Philadelphia – perhaps with one eye on avoiding suspension for the last 16 tie. Exciting times.

Nkunku in the shop window?

When the line-ups were announced around 90 minutes before kick-off, there was a plenty of curiosity surrounding Chelsea’s. Eight changes were made in total – something Maresca did hint would happen given the turnaround between matches, the amount of football that has been played already this season and – crucially – the scorching hot temperatures in Philadelphia.

One of the more curious decisions was to start Christopher Nkunku. It is no secret the 27-year-old, who arrived for £52million two years ago, wants to leave the club this summer. The feeling is very much mutual, with Chelsea looking to sell Nkunku given his frustrations this season.

So, why start Nkunku against Esperance? Could it be Chelsea looking to remind the world of football just what the Frenchman can do? There is no doubting his ability, but questions over his fit in the system are more valid, not to mention his application out of possession.

However, the experiment did not pay off for Chelsea and Nkunku. Sloppy in possession and when he was trying to make something happen, as with a through ball to Delap around 20 minutes in, he got it horribly wrong.

Maresca eases Santos worries

Maresca did his absolute best to try and ease some of the worries from Chelsea supporters surrounding Andrey Santos. The 20-year-old midfielder is yet to feature at all at the Club World Cup for the Blues, with many excited to see how he fared given his superb season on loan at Strasbourg.

However, Maresca has insisted Santos, as well as the other new arrivals in the Chelsea squad, needs time to adapt to his ideology. Speaking to DAZN pre-match, the Blues head coach explained: “He [Santos] is working well, but he needs to understand how we play. It’s the same for all of the new ones. It’s important for them to continue in the way they are working to get opportunities.”

The worries were eased even more midway through the second-half when Santos was handed his competitive Chelsea debut. The Brazil international replaced Enzo Fernandez on 68 minutes and did well in his cameo.

Santos passed it well and made his presence felt. The truth is, though, by the time he came on, it was more of a training session for the Blues.