What Chelsea players did to Reece James speaks volumes as Enzo Maresca struggles with big problem

Deep into stoppage time, Stamford Bridge collectively holds its breath.

There is Joe Willock, free at the far post. The Newcastle United midfielder has a free header. Unchallenged. Surely this will be a goal. He can either go for goal himself or look to find one of his teammates. He chose the latter.

It turned out to be the wrong choice. Reece James is in the right place. The Chelsea captain heads out for a corner. James' teammates, grateful for their skipper's presence, gather around the right-back; patting him on the back and shouting all sorts of nice things in his direction.

It was just a matter of moments after that when referee Simon Hooper blew the whistle for full-time after seven gruelling added minutes from Chelsea's point of view. As soon as he heard Hooper's whistle, James collapsed. He knew how big that could be for the Blues and him on a personal level.

The strange thing is, James almost scored an own goal with the header in question but his intelligence and overall footballing IQ to be where he was - incredible. It was a certain goal if he was not there.

Down on the floor in his own box at full-time, James is mobbed by his teammates. They gather around their captain to congratulate him. It was a goal-saving action from James but also, crucially, it was the first time he had put 90 minutes together in a Blues shirt for more than 18 months.

That match was a 1-0 defeat to Wolves at Molineux, which you may remember was Frank Lampard's first match as interim head coach after replacing Graham Potter. Yes, it has been that long for James.

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Starting at left-back, in a surprising tactical tweak from Enzo Maresca, it took a while for James to get into the game. He did in the end, though, with his defensive contributions the strongest part of his game in Sunday's 2-1 win against Newcastle. That was certainly one talking point, but there are also some others, as Bobby Vincent discusses below...

Maresca struggles with Chelsea balance

The win on Sunday afternoon was Chelsea's fifth of the Premier League season and it moved them up to fifth in the top-flight table. It was by no means the Blues' strongest performance under Maresca this term, however, and the head coach admitted after the game that his side were unable to find the correct balance at Stamford Bridge.

Maresca could be seen on numerous occasions on the touchline trying to calm his players down. With some of the speedy attackers the Blues have up the pitch, there will always be a temptation to try and counter-attack and hit the opposition through transition. That, though, is not the Enzo way.

The Italian wants his team to be patient with the ball; keep possession, frustrate and tire the opposition and then look to penetrate. "There are games, especially today's one, that if you do a basketball game, they would destroy us," Maresca said on the end-to-end nature of Chelsea vs Newcastle.

"Newcastle are strong, they are good, they have some good players in transition. The reason I was saying to calm was because this is the kind of game before you attack you need to make 15, 20 or 25 passes.

"If you want to attack with two passes, you are long distance, they recover the ball and they can cause problems. That is the reason I was shouting all game, 'calm, calm, calm, make passes' is because against them if you do up and down game, they destroy us."

Neto stakes claim

Pedro Neto was perhaps a surprise starter when the teams were announced 75 minutes before kick-off on Sunday afternoon. However, the 24-year-old winger was immense on the day and was a constant threat for Chelsea; whether that be down the left or right-hand side.

After a simply sensational pass from the simply sensational Cole Palmer, Neto got the wrong side of Tino Livramento. And as we know with Neto, there is no catching him. Fabian Schar found out the hard way, sliding in to try and win the ball back for the Magpies but being left helpless on his bottom.

Neto then squared the ball to Nicolas Jackson, who had the easiest of finishes inside the box. That was his best moment of the game, no doubt, but Neto continued to threaten on the flank for Chelsea. His defensive work-rate was superb, too; something Maresca has clearly drilled into each and every one of his collection of wide players.

Mykhailo Mudryk, in his brilliant display in Greece on Thursday, tracked back the length of the pitch at one point to stop Panathinaikos. Noni Madueke has got so much better defensively this season, while Jadon Sancho can be seen performing a man-marking masterclass on Trent Alexander-Arnold during the first-half of last weekend's defeat to Liverpool.

Maresca has said it before: you need to work off the ball to be in his team. The players clearly recognise that because they are certainly working for him. Neto, the latest to show his work-rate going back towards his own goal, has now made a claim to be part of Chelsea's 'A side'.