Revealed: Enzo Maresca’s masterplan to hold out with 10 men against Arsenal – Chelsea’s half-time tactical shift that learned from past mistakes, why Pedro Neto swapped wings and how he justified hooking Estevao Willian

We were waiting to see if Anthony Taylor was sent to his pitchside monitor to take a look at Moises Caicedo’s challenge on Mikel Merino when an almighty scream emerged from the Arsenal bench. They had already watched it on their own iPad and, well, weren’t happy.

Mikel Arteta’s assistants Albert Stuivenberg and Gabriel Heinze led the complaints committee with fourth official Sam Barrott. Set-piece specialist Nicolas Jover made VAR hand signals in Taylor’s direction. Even Kepa Arrizabalaga, Arsenal’s back-up goalkeeper, formerly of Chelsea, chatted with Barrott while a few other analysts also expressed their anger.

They were in trouble. But Chelsea? In comparison, they were calm. Enzo Maresca looked towards his own coach Bernardo Cueva, sitting at the back of the bench with his own iPad. Cueva returned a face that suggested, yes, a red card was probably coming.

Maresca consulted with his assistants, including Willy Caballero and Danny Walker, to discuss who to recruit and who to sacrifice in light of the loss of a midfield general in Caicedo. The consensus? Don’t change sides. Keep it as is. Get to halftime and then fine-tune.

It was Chelsea’s sixth dismissal of the season in all competitions – the seventh if you add Maresca’s for celebrating their late win against Liverpool in October – and so, admittedly, they have had plenty of practice playing 10-a-side games. But Maresca’s reaction to Caicedo’s red against Arsenal was brave, positive and totally different from what we expected after previous experiences.

Manchester United away – Robert Sanchez red card after five minutes. They had to make at least one change to bring in second choice goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen. But Maresca refused to stop there. He made not one but two immediate substitutions, sacrificing his two wingers to bring on Jorgensen and defender Tosin Adarabioyo. It reeked of negativity, left Chelsea without any attacking impetus and United won 2-1.

Moises Caicedo digs into Mikel Merino’s ankle at Stamford Bridge on Sunday

The Chelsea midfielder is sent off, becoming the sixth Blues player to be dismissed in all competitions this season.

At half-time, Enzo Maresca announced to Estevao Willian that he was being replaced by Alejandro Garnacho (above) and then explained why to the whole group.

Brighton at home – Trevoh Chalobah red card after 53 minutes. Maresca immediately called on a defender, Josh Acheampong, to replace midfielder Andrey Santos, then, less than 10 minutes later, another defender, Malo Gusto, to replace winger Estevao Willian. Still negative, Chelsea led 1-0, but Brighton won 3-1.

The reds they received in subsequent matches came too late to make any substantial changes. Joao Pedro v Benfica – 90th minute. Gusto at Nottingham Forest – 87th minute. Liam Delap at Wolves – 86th minute. They were already winning there and held on.

But this time, Caicedo’s poorly timed challenge left Chelsea a man shy after 38 minutes. Truth be told, those of us in the press box expected the same old story to repeat itself: an impulsive substitution, a desire to go on the defensive and a defeat, this time against the league leaders.

Instead, Chelsea stood still until the break. At the half-time whistle, Maresca rushed into the tunnel accompanied by his fellow coaches.

Like many managers, Maresca has a whiteboard with magnets in the locker room – 11 in red and 11 in blue. Well, 10 in blue this time. While waiting for the arrival of the players led by Reece James, Maresca reorganized these characters in conversation with Caballero, Walker. and others.

In the first half, Chelsea players moved up the field to pin Arsenal, notably full-back Malo Gusto (n°27), Enzo Fernandez (n°8) and Pedro Neto (n°7).

In the second half, Gusto, Fernández and Neto, who swapped wings, all drop much deeper to compensate for having 10 men. But Alejandro Garnacho (No49) pushes high up the pitch to threaten the Gunners at the break.

Maresca told Estevao that he was being replaced by Alejandro Garnacho, then explained why to the entire group.

The simplest solution would have been to sacrifice a striker for a midfielder to fill that Caicedo-shaped hole, but no, they had the initiative and wanted to keep it.

It was a like-for-like replacement – ​​a winger for a winger – but it was necessary for how they were going to approach the rest of this game.

It was no slight to Estevao that he was the one who was addicted. Until Caicedo’s red, Gusto galloped down the right side to overlap the 18-year-old Brazilian and allow him to move inside, into central positions and closer to Joao Pedro.

Now that wouldn’t happen, certainly not as regularly as it did in the 11-on-11 era.

Maresca wanted Gusto to reduce his flying forward because they could no longer afford their back four turning into a back three, and he replaced Pedro Neto from the left wing to the right because the 25-year-old Portuguese is his hardest runner.

Starting every Premier League game this season and the fastest player, he would be ready to fulfill his defensive duties while also providing a threat on the counter-attack.

Maresca did not stay on the defensive when his team was reduced to 10 men, something he attempted unsuccessfully against Manchester United.

Malo Gusto (left) watches over Eberechi Eze. The full-back was given strict instructions not to push as much as Chelsea were reduced to 10 men.

Garnacho was brought in to give them that width on the left as he tried to stay high and wide when not needed to help Marc Cucurella. Garnacho was also told to stay high and wait for those beautifully stinging diagonal balls from James to come towards him.

Maresca asked Enzo Fernández to move deeper into midfield rather than act as their number 10. He told Joao Pedro, later replaced by Delap, to try to stay towards the top of the pitch to avoid this match turning into an attack versus defence.

He told the team to push when they could – indeed, Chelsea’s average positions show that their defense played deeper in the first half than in the second – and in some final words of encouragement, he asked them to “double the effort”.

Chelsea were nastier than Arsenal, calmer and, in terms of Maresca’s tactics, braver. They took the lead through Chalobah and only conceded the equalizer once Bukayo Saka finally escaped Cucurella’s clutches to cross for Merino to head home.

Maresca will hope his team won’t be forced to compete with 10 men again any time soon, but if nothing else, Chelsea have at least shown they now know how to deal with that.