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A busy week is about to begin at Chelsea.

On Tuesday, Jose Mourinho, one of the club’s most admired players, makes his return to west London with his new team Benfica in the Champions League.

Then, on Saturday, Liverpool, the defending Premier League champions, will be playing in town.

Following a run of one victories in five games, the Carabao Cup matchup between League One club Lincoln City, Blues manager Enzo Maresca would not have hand-picked this week.

In recent weeks, the narrative has undergone a notable change, at least externally, regarding the Italian position.

Maresca’s job appeared to be among the safest in the country as the new season approached, at least from the outside.

He had secured Chelsea’s place in the Champions League after leading the team to a top-four finish that was more relevant.

Then, in its new format, Maresca led the club’s triumph at the Fifa Club World Cup, becoming the competition’s inaugural winners.

Despite those notable accomplishments, Maresca’s position has once more been subject to scrutiny in recent weeks as a result of Chelsea’s unfavorable start to the season, which they currently lead by seven points behind leaders Liverpool.

Behind the scenes at Chelsea, it seems like some of the criticism they faced before had been overreacted.

Due to their participation in the Club World Cup and the added workload brought on by their Champions League campaign, it has also been acknowledged that there are likely to be undulations this season.

Chelsea are putting their own personal perspective on things, despite the disappointments caused by recent defeats by Manchester United and Brighton and the acknowledgement that their form needs to improve.

Since May, Maresca’s side have only lost five games, and in four of those defeats, they have lost just 10 men.

In addition, Chelsea continued to work with him last season despite a mid-winter slump that saw the team only win three of their 12 matches, including one against Morecambe in the FA Cup.

With a top-four league finish and deep cup runs in mind, the 45-year-old wants to judge Maresca at the end of the season.

Despite that, there is a perception that Maresca is much more talented than they were last year, which raises expectations.

However, it is obvious that the campaign should be evaluated as a whole.

Given their Champions League participation, key players concur that avoiding injuries will be difficult to avoid this year.

In order to ensure Maresca had the tools to rotate players in light of the increased workload, they made efforts to strengthen the squad over the summer.

Of course, it’s still to be seen if the support stops or how they can continue to improve their early season form.

Dubai, Asia Cup final

class=”ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3″>Pakistan 146 (19.1 overs): S Farhan 57 (38), K Yadav 4-30

India 150-5 (19.4 overs): Tilak 69* (53), Faheem 3-29

By five wickets, India won.

In a tense final at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, India won the Asia Cup by five wickets over Pakistan.

The rivals’ third appearance at the tournament was a success for India, which earned them their ninth title.

Similar to the two earlier fractious encounters, both sides once more refused to shake hands.

The India players did not come back for the trophy presentation, according to reports that Mohsin Naqvi, the president of the Asian Cricket Council, and Mohsin Naqvi, the president of the Pakistan Cricket Board, were present.

Sahibzada Farhan (57) and Fakhar Zaman (46), who were made to bat first, put together an impressive opening stand of 84.

With 44 balls remaining in the innings, they rallied to 113-1, but the subsequent collapse would be dramatic and have an impact on the outcome.

In their opening three overs, India themselves lost three wickets, giving Pakistan hope, and they themselves started poorly.

However, Tilak Varma’s fine unbeaten 69 helped them to avenge, while Shivam Dube (33) and Sanju Samson (24) provided much-needed support as they won with two balls to go.

It’s been incredible to continue winning in the tournament, said Test captain Shubman Gill. We knew we had to play the game as fully as we could when times were difficult.

Arsenal was quickly running out of time.

Newcastle United held on to a commanding lead at St James’ Park with 83 minutes remaining on the clock thanks to a deft header from Nick Woltemade.

And it appeared to be one of those visitors’ days.

Following Nick Pope’s apparent attempt to down Viktor Gyokeres, a penalty award had previously been overturned following a video assistant referee’s (VAR) intervention.

An effort was smashed off the post, according to Leandro Trossard.

Eberechi Eze and Jurrien Timber both made excellent saves to keep out one more and Pope made superb saves.

Arsenal won thanks to Gabriel’s dramatic stoppage-time goal, but they also came equal through substitute Mikel Merino.

No wonder Mikel Arteta’s side fought back from the touchline with ferocious celebrations as they moved within a point of Liverpool, the league’s top team.

He told Match of the Day, “Wow, what a feeling to win in the manner that we have done.” At the conclusion of the match, “football is about going through emotions and going through things,” and today we had one of those emotions.

That is the entry point for a different level. by experiencing those circumstances and absorbing the lessons.

On recent visits to St. James’, Arteta has experienced completely different emotions.

In all competitions, Newcastle had previously defeated Arsenal three times at home.

These games have historically had a certain edge that has allowed Newcastle to extract its best from each other.

And Eddie Howe, the head coach of Newcastle, has frequently said that his players play better when they encounter that “sweet spot of aggression and competitiveness.”

Before the game, midfielder Joelinton yelled, “We are competitors. We want to compete, “. We want to win.

Jamaal Lascelles wrote in his pre-match programme notes that playing at a febrile St James “makes you feel like you can run through a brick wall” as if Joelinton’s words didn’t upend his team-mates enough.

Arsenal had to overcome that obstacle, not the least of which when the home support roared at tackles and blocks in the first half.

Even “Mikel Arteta – it must be the ball” was used as a rip-off for the Arsenal manager’s explanation for how his team failed to hit the target in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final last year.

However, Arteta also had a few well-known trump cards to turn to, including his bench and set-plays, for the first time.

Eberechi Eze and Gabriel Martinelli had previously collaborated for Manchester City’s equaliser. After coming off the bench against Athletic Club in the Champions League, Martinelli and Trossard both scored. Trossard’s substitution substitution helped seal Port Vale’s midweek EFL Cup victory.

What do these sets-plays and this side have in common?

In order to put this context, Arsenal has scored 36 goals from corners in the Premier League since the start of the 2023-24 season, which is 15 more than any other team during that time.

This game was ultimately turned on its head by Arsenal’s set-piece prowess.

Arsenal took a short corner in the opening frame before Declan Rice swung the ball into the box in the 84th minute.

In front of Sven Botman, Merino tapped the ball in off the post.

And Joe Hart, a match of the day pundit, knew the decision to cut short.

The former Manchester City goalkeeper told BBC Sport that Rice was willing to “do something off the cuff” to score the goal. That is someone who is unconcerned with the issues Arsenal was facing, that was someone looking for a solution, and that was the solution at that time.

When he needs to make those last-ditch tackles, he does it, and when he needs to do something special, like that kind of blind round the corner ball that Merino’s team needed, that is what he does.

Merino had previously spent a year at Newcastle, but there was no chance the Spaniard would be able to control his celebration by punching the air.

However, the fact that each Arsenal player raced backwards to get the game back on track was instructive.

They were aware that a new twist was about to occur, and it did so in the 96th minute.

Arsenal went right after conceding an equalizer before Martin Odegaard found Gabriel, who headed home with a near post.

Even though this side make it a habit to score late goals, the away end ended up in the gods could scarcely believe it.

That demonstrates both set-pieces strategy and mentality, Mentoro told Match of the Day. If six or seven corners are not scored by other teams, they lose faith in the qualities.

“But for us, it’s a matter of keeping doing what we do, doing it at the highest level, and ultimately, the final one, the last second, we scored,” he said.

The Gunners’ ability to pass this was still in its early stages, of course, but it did seem like a good one to put the title challengers to the test.

After watching Liverpool’s team’s 2-1 defeat against Crystal Palace on Saturday, Arteta’s men ultimately took advantage.

Arsenal have now closed the gap, closing it five points clear of them.

Ellen White, the record-scorer for England women, told BBC Sport, “The character they showed today was as impressive as the result.” “They have had some difficult games there recently and some things aren’t quite going their way because St. James’ Park has been such a difficult place for them to go.”