Why Chelsea struggle away from home as Enzo Maresca's full-time moment at Arsenal speaks volumes

It was yet another bland display from Chelsea as they crashed to a 1-0 defeat away at Arsenal. Losing at the Emirates Stadium is not the absolute worst thing in the world - plenty do it across the course of the season - but the manner of the defeat is the excruciating thing from a Blues perspective.

The Gunners were distinctly average on Sunday afternoon. Mikel Arteta's men were good value for their lead when Mikel Merino headed in on 20 minutes but equally they never looked too threatening in attacking positions. Fortunately for the north Londoners, however, Chelsea outdid them on looking average.

Enzo Maresca seemed quite content post-match with how his side played. He said they had control of the game - particularly in the second-half. If you judge that by possession, then the head coach is right. Chelsea ended the match with 59% of the ball throughout the 90 minutes. Is that control? Maybe.

But maybe not, too. Arsenal were barely threatened at the Emirates - with Marc Cucurella's volley that was spilled by David Raya the closest the visitors came to finding the back of the net. That tells you all that you need to know when the left-back is the biggest attacking threat. The xG is usually a good indicator of the quality of a team's chances in front of goal and Chelsea ended with just 0.36.

All in all, another disappointing day on the road from a Chelsea point of view, with their away woes continuing. We will get onto that, and much more, in our talking points below.

Chelsea's painful away form

Since the Blues' last away victory in the Premier League, three months and one week have passed. It has been that long. Seriously.

In that time, Chelsea have played seven games on the road, scoring three goals and conceding 12. It is a problem Maresca did not see coming, with his side performing stronger away from home than at Stamford Bridge in the opening weeks of the campaign.

There is certainly something to be said about Chelsea's counter-attacking play and how they consistently turn down chances to hit the opposition on the break. Maresca likes his players to gain control in matches by passing the ball and wear their opponents out. This has led to a few instances where players would prefer to pass the ball backwards rather than having a go at catching their opponent out on the counter-attack.

There was an example of that on Sunday when Pedro Neto, who was extremely isolated at times at the Emirates, had the chance to run at a couple of Arsenal defenders but there was nobody in a Chelsea shirt anywhere near the Portuguese. Neto instead turned back and recycled possession. Away from home especially, counter-attacking is crucial in the Premier League but Chelsea are not interested. At least that's how it seems to the untrained eye.

Is this the sole reason for Chelsea's terrible run on the road? No, probably not. There are other instances that those at Cobham will be trying to figure out over the next two weeks. However, it is certainly a problem.

Maresca says sorry to supporters

Maresca walked over to the away section post-match to applaud the supporters and offer his apologies. The Italian held his hands up in the air in what looked to be an apology. Those Chelsea fans were understandably incredibly frustrated with what they saw from their team.

It is always a bad day when a manager has to come over and say sorry to the fans and the fact Maresca did that speaks volumes to the level of Chelsea's performance. In fairness to the head coach, he was missing arguably his three most important attacking players in Cole Palmer, Noni Madueke and Nicolas Jackson but with the recruitment that has happened at Stamford Bridge in recent years, being so toothless in offensive situations cannot be excused.

The chants of "attack, attack, attack" from the away supporters midway through the first-half summed it up. Chelsea never seemed to be in any rush and Arsenal were more than comfortable as they held on and recorded all three points.

Chelsea sweat on Palmer injury

There was a big shock when the team news dropped around 75 minutes prior to kick-off in north London. Palmer did not get off the bus. Rumours were floating around online about why he was not there and it was later confirmed he had a muscular injury.

Palmer will have a scan on the problem at Cobham on Monday as Chelsea face an anxious wait to discover just how long he will be out for. A 10-game goal drought or not, Palmer remains the Blues' most important attacking player and even when he has not been scoring, he has still been performing well. Granted, not to the level he has created for himself.

With Jackson coming back after the break, it could make a real difference in Chelsea's season between now and May but Palmer needs to be there with the first-choice striker.