With injuries, illness, fatigue and suspension starting to bite, yesterday was the first time that even Chelsea’s deep and elite squad started to feel a little stretched. Yet when the teams came out, there were two goalkeepers on the bench, and no Noni Madueke to be seen. We expected the England winger to start, and certainly to be in the squad. When he wasn’t, we could only assume he had been added to the list of the unavailable. But when asked about if after the game, manager Enzo Maresca insisted it was a “technical decision,” a rather continental phrase which basically means a managerial decision i.e. anything which is not based on injury or tactics. It wasn’t clear what exactly Madueke had done, but as we wrote last night, it wouldn’t take long for the press to get to the bottom of it. Kieran Gill of the Daily Mail seems to have got there first. His piece today claims that Madueke’s absence was due to poor training performance. After one warning in August, another at the start of December and a third this week, the punishment was missing out on the game. Enzo Maresca is apparently trying to forge a “firm, but fair” culture. https://chelsea.news/2024/12/maresca-drops-madueke-firm/ --

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