After masterminding Atalanta’s 2–1 comeback win over Chelsea on Tuesday night, Charles De Ketelaere was reminded that Alejandro Garnacho had claimed to have not watched the Italian side in the last two years. “Now he knows who we are,” the Belgian playmaker grinned.
Garnacho’s prematch comments drew plenty of attention heading into the midweek league phase fixture. While the English media focussed on his declaration that he had no regrets about leaving Manchester United, the Italian press latched upon his dismissive tone when it came to the Bergamo outfit.
“The last time I saw Atalanta was two years ago,” the Argentina international shrugged, “in the Europa League final they won.”
“It’s a big opportunity for us to get the three points and I think we’re going to be there in the top,” he added.
This was fuel to the fire of controversy which is forever flickering in football media. Several other comments from Garnacho were conveniently overlooked. The 21-year-old warned that “it’s not going to be easy” and predicted “a strong team and a difficult match.”
Those platitudes were not relayed to De Ketelaere in the aftermath of a pulsating back-and-forth in Bergamo. Instead, the match-winner took great pleasure in shutting down Garnacho’s prematch barb.
De Ketelaere was in fine form in midweek, not so much running across the turf as gliding six inches above it. The waifish figure teed up Gianluca Scamacca for a second-half equaliser before blasting in the winning goal himself with seven minutes left to play.
Despite ending up on the losing side with his own words stuffed back down his throat, it wasn’t Garnacho’s worst outing for the Blues. The summer recruit came off the bench for the final quarter of the contest and forced Marco Carnesecchi into a pair of testing saves, which is more than could be said of the entirely anonymous Jamie Gittens or Pedro Neto.
Nevertheless, it was a result which caused Maresca to make some telling admissions.
Maresca: Chelsea Are Struggling
“First half we were winning, we were good and controlling the game,” Maresca somewhat generously surmised when in discussion with TNT Sports postmatch. “After we conceded the first goal, we lost control a little bit of the game.
“We are playing every two days, two days, two days,” the Italian boss bemoaned. “For a moment we looked like we struggled a bit. Now it’s about trying to win the next game.
“We were aggressive like them. We had different chances to make it 2–0 and when we conceded 1–1 the dynamic of the game changed a little bit.”
When confronted with Chelsea’s underwhelming run of form—since thrashing Barcelona a fortnight ago, the Blues are winless in four games—Maresca admitted to UEFA: “I am always worried. Two points in four games is not what we expect and we have to do better.”
The Blues will have the chance to end that winless sequence when they host Everton at Stamford Bridge on Saturday afternoon. It may be wise for Garnacho to refrain from any choice words this time.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Alejandro Garnacho Receives Scathing Six-Word Put Down From Rival Player.