Football writer Alex Keble analyses Chelsea's 5-1 win over West Ham United at London Stadium on Friday.
That’s more like it for Chelsea. After a false start last weekend, the Chelsea whom supporters had been promised – the world champions, ready for a title challenge – are up and running.
And this was a match all about running, a match defined by Chelsea’s front-line sprinting through a fading West Ham defence over and over again.
The visitors were buzzing with youthful energy, the hosts powerless to resist. You didn’t need to do the maths to see which side was younger, but for the record: West Ham’s XI averaged 27.4 years, Chelsea’s 24.0.
Perhaps it was the optimism of youth that inspired Chelsea to blow away the cobwebs of last Sunday’s 0-0 draw against Crystal Palace - and allay fears their potential had been overstated.
Those fears only grew after Cole Palmer withdrew from the action after the warm-ups and Lucas Paqueta put the Hammers ahead with a brilliant early goal. By the final whistle, Maresca’s young team were again dreaming of the Premier League title.
Maresca stumbles upon new tactical go-to
If this is the moment Chelsea’s season takes off, they may owe it to a tactical change made by Enzo Maresca – and to Palmer’s injury.
For the second match in a row, Maresca picked a complex formation, following the 3-3-1-3 against Palace that isolated Palmer in the No 10 space.
It looked as though Maresca worked specifically to fix that problem at London Stadium, where Moises Caicedo sat alone in front of a back three and three players – Enzo Fernandez, Joao Pedro, and Estevao – worked together behind Liam Delap.
This change allowed Maresca to play two out-and-out No 10s in the middle (the plan, before his injury in the warm-up, was to pair Palmer with Joao Pedro), and it quickly worked to carve open the West Ham defence.
Joao Pedro was impressive drifting around as playmaker-in-chief, scoring the first and assisting the second, although the star of the first half was Estevao.
He made a big difference off the bench against Palace with his directness, and that extra oomph – the piercing dribbles and runs that shake Chelsea out of stale possession – was crucial here, especially for the visitors' third goal, when Estevao burst through the back line to assist Fernandez.
They might seem like minor details, but as Maresca seeks to overcome deep-lying defences, this is the level of tactical discovery he is working at.
The Chelsea head coach can’t be this attacking every match, but playing Joao Pedro behind Delap - and having another No 10 in Estevao to move against the grain - pulled the West Ham defence apart.
Better yet, it proved Chelsea can play well without Palmer.
Delap makes his pitch for the No 9 slot
Although Joao Pedro and Estevao starred, arguably the most important attacking performance of the night was Delap’s.
Ignore the fact that he made just six passes, only two more than Viktor Gyokeres on his Arsenal debut. It’s what Delap did off the ball, and how he became the fulcrum around which others moved, that counted.
It could prove essential in turning Maresca’s chess-like possession football into something more dynamic.
All those runners needed Delap as the centrepiece; there is no way Chelsea would have so consistently found themselves streaming forward in spaces between the lines had Delap not been pinning West Ham defenders.
Once again, a close look at the third Chelsea goal is most revealing here. It was Delap’s ability to hold Aaron Cresswell, and provide the wall-pass, that allowed Estevao to ghost ahead unmarked.
Delap’s role was good news all round: for Chelsea fans, for Joao Pedro (who prefers floating deeper), and for Palmer, even if their No 10 might appear to have lost out by not playing.
On the surface, it doesn’t look good that Palmer struggled to make an impact against Palace and then sat on the sidelines for a more fluid Chelsea display.
But in this system, with Delap as the target to bounce off, Palmer would have revelled in the spaces in the West Ham match.
After the blank against Palace, Chelsea really needed this. Order is restored and expectations are sky-high again.
Defensive issues leave West Ham needing reinforcements
West Ham could hardly have endured a worse day. Fans left their seats in the 59th minute following Chelsea’s fifth and final goal. Remorselessly, the camera repeatedly settled on Potter’s thousand-yard stare.
It’s a stare Chelsea supporters have seen before, of course. Potter managed to earn just 28 points in 22 Premier League matches in charge of Chelsea.
So far, he is on 20 points from 20 Premier League matches at West Ham.
He has serious work to do. Eight goals are the most West Ham have conceded in the first two top-flight matches of a season. Nine points is the fewest any West Ham manager has won in their first 10 home games in charge.
It’s easy to see where the problems lie.
Chelsea scored their third goal with just their fourth shot of the match.
All five goals can be blamed on basic defensive disorganisation, from a failure to mark at a corner (Joao Pedro’s opener) to giving the ball away on the edge of their own box (Pedro Neto’s goal).
However, up until when Niclas Fullkrug thought he had put West Ham 2-1 up, only to see his goal disallowed for a tight offside, the hosts were arguably the better team.
Their 3-4-3 was compact enough and their breaks, led by Paqueta, neatly took advantage of Chelsea’s decision to play Joao Pedro as one of the central midfielders.
Indeed, Maresca’s decision to leave Moises Caicedo alone at the base explains why Paqueta had so much time to move forward and blast West Ham into the lead.
The tactical plan definitely had legs, but it was brutally undermined by Chelsea’s rapid attack – and basic defensive errors from a back three who clearly are not fast enough.
Potter may hope for help in the transfer window. With Nottingham Forest (A) and Tottenham Hotspur (H) up next, there is little time to lose.