Suffice to say the kids were alright. Chelsea made Champions League history of sorts with the teamsheet, still more with the scoresheet. They have played the generation game over the last three years, but the shift to youth never felt as pronounced. Nor, they may feel, as much of a vindication. Enzo Maresca named the second youngest 11 an English club had ever selected in this competition – behind an Arsenal side that, strange as it sounds, featured Tom Cruise – and Chelsea became the first team ever to have three teenagers score in a Champions League game. “It was a great night especially for these young players and the club,” said Maresca. “It is the strategy of the club.”
The rested captain Reece James began the night as Chelsea’s youngest Champions League scorer. Within 50 minutes of football, he was only the fourth youngest. Marc Guiu took his record and held it for half an hour until Estevao Willian struck. Then Tyrique George, older than the Brazilian, netted three minutes after his introduction. Each was born when Jose Mourinho was Chelsea manager. The Special One may have been glad of their goals: only this hapless Ajax team are keeping his Benfica off the foot of the Champions League table.
Reggie Walsh, born a year after Chelsea sacked Mourinho for the first time, emerged for the last half-hour. “We have so many young players,” said Maresca. And if Walsh’s introduction was a sign of his precocious talent, it was also an indication of how comfortable Chelsea were by then.
All of which owed something to Ajax. To think Chelsea were supposed to be the team with the disciplinary problem. Three horribly misjudged challenges by Ajax brought a sending off and two penalties. In a weird game, they were the architects of their own downfall.
A fallen giant made history of the wrong sort, and a strange sort. As Chelsea went young, they went old. The recalled goalkeeper Remko Pasveer became the third oldest player ever in the Champions League; in a case of cruelty to the elderly, his prize was to pick the ball out of the back of his net five times. Three of the scorers are less than half his 41 years. Unlike them, Pasveer is old enough to remember when Ajax were champions of Europe. This was ignominious for them, laced with unhappiness. They conceded four goals in the first half of a European match for the first time since 1958.
Their fans whistled when Oscar Gloukh was sacrificed after they went down to 10 men; for the first time, they called for manager John Heitinga’s head. Having finished off Ange Postecoglou on Saturday, Chelsea prove the grim reaper for struggling coaches.
And yet, as Heitinga said, Ajax started well. Then it went from the subdued to the ridiculous because of Ajax. After a sedate start, the Ajax captain Kenneth Taylor was initially cautioned for planting his studs into Facundo Buonanotte’s ankle. It only took referee Felix Zwayer a glance at a screenshot to upgrade the card and dismiss the midfielder.
“The red card changed the game,” admitted Maresca. Within seconds of the restart, Ajax were behind, the unmarked Guiu tapping in from Wesley Fofana’s header to cap his own shift in fortunes. When dispatched on loan to Sunderland, he probably did not expect to score in the Champions League this season. He owed his return to Chelsea to Liam Delap’s injury, his place in the starting 11 to Joao Pedro’s silly sending-off against Benfica.
As Chelsea scored five, the absence of their two senior strikers scarcely cost them. Another of Moises Caicedo’s long-range strikes doubled their lead, though this required a deflection off Josip Sutalo.
There is a carelessness to Chelsea, though, and Tosin Adarabioyo needlessly tripped Raul Moro in the box. Wout Weghorst converted the spot kick and then, with a strange main-character energy, seemed to take over, spreading chaos.
Mocked by the Chelsea support as a “s**t Andy Carroll”, Weghorst scored one penalty, conceding another, shedding blood for the Ajax cause but harming them when upending Enzo Fernandez. The Argentinian converted the spot kick himself and then gave a second to Estevao when the Brazilian was fouled – twice, arguably – by Youri Baas. Estevao scored superbly and played superbly. “I feel very lucky to be his manager,” said Maresca.
The Italian had seemed to prioritise Sunderland when resting James, Marc Cucurella and Robert Sanchez and making 10 changes. He took the opportunity to remove Fernandez at half-time and Caicedo soon after. In between, George had struck, three minutes after his introduction.
It left Chelsea with, in effect, a second-string side, the substitutions perhaps sparing Ajax a still heavier defeat. If the first half had offered echoes of the error-strewn 4-4 these sides shared in 2019, with its cocktail of goals and red cards, there was no such result for Ajax to savour now. Instead, the club indelibly associated with promising young players conceded to three.
