Three Chelsea players at risk of Club World Cup suspension as Enzo Maresca left to sweat

Chelsea started their FIFA Club World Cup campaign on Monday with three points against Los Angeles FC at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

The Blues got the ball rolling in Georgia via Pedro Neto’s opening goal in the first-half after the Portuguese attacker was found superbly by Nicolas Jackson. With just over 10 minutes of normal time remaining, the west Londoners doubled their advantage against the MLS side with Liam Delap, making his debut for the club, setting up Enzo Fernandez.

Enzo Maresca was delighted with the attitude his young squad, with three new faces in it, showcased in Atlanta. The Chelsea head coach described the atmosphere as “strange”, with the Mercedes-Benz Stadium only having 22,000 supporters in attendance despite holding more than 71,000.

“We are professional and have to adapt to any situation or environment,” Maresca said post-match. “What’s important is the behaviour of the players, the attitude, and once again today, they showed how professional they are and the desire they have, because it was important to win today and also not concede a goal.

“We finished the Premier League season and Conference League very strong defensively, without conceding many goals. Today we continued that and we want to stay with this attitude.”

However, one slight concern for Maresca will be the three yellow cards picked up for the Blues in the win on Monday. Reece James, Tosin Adarabioyo and Marc Cucurella were all cautioned by the referee in Atlanta and are now at risk of being banned.

FIFA rules state: “No player or official will carry a yellow card into the FIFA Club World Cup 2025. Any player or official given a yellow card in two different games will miss their team’s subsequent match.

“Yellow cards will be wiped after the quarter-finals. If, during the quarter-finals, a player or official is booked for the second match at the tournament, he will be suspended for the semi-final.”

So, James, Tosin and Cucurella are all one booking away from serving a one-match ban. Maresca, though, admitted he will be rotating his side as the group stage progresses, with Chelsea set to play three games in less than 10 days over in the United States. He said pre-match on Monday: “First of all, it is a tournament and we have three games in less than 10 days, so we need to rotate, for sure.”

Chelsea will now fly from Atlanta back to Philadelphia, where the squad spent a few days training prior to the win over Los Angeles, as they prepare for their second group match against Flamengo on Friday. The Brazilians emulated Chelsea’s scoreline later on Monday evening/early hours of Tuesday morning for those in the UK, with a 2-0 victory over Esperance.