Approaching the 10-game mark of the Premier League season, we are no closer to understanding quite where Chelsea’s ceiling lies than we were in August.
They are, on their day, one of the most exhilarating teams in the division - joint top scorers with Manchester City and today’s opponents, Tottenham.
As the Blues showed away to Wolves in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday, they can go from back to front in an instant, leaving opponents bloodied and breathless.
However, as ferocious as they are in attack, they are just as quick to anger, and Liam Delap’s dismissal against Wolves - branded “stupid” by Enzo Maresca - highlighted a growing disciplinary problem that continues to undermine their progress under Enzo Maresca.
“I think that some of the red cards that we concede, we can avoid it,” Maresca admitted in his pre-match press conference on Friday.
The Club World Cup champions were meant to be among the challengers for the league title, but following their shock defeat to Sunderland last weekend, they enter tonight’s game with Tottenham three points and six places behind their London rivals.
Chelsea have the upper hand in this fixture, having won their last four games against Tottenham and losing just once in 12 games since 2020.
They launched genuine, if fleeting, title talk with a 4-3 win at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last December.
However, despite the promise they have shown under Maresca, questions remain, and they head into Saturday’s trip to north London no clearer as to their aspirations this season.
Chelsea’s young squad are learning. Maresca said that they will learn from their second-half performance at Molineux, in which they shipped three goals and were reduced to 10 men.
“The first half was completely under control. In the second half, after the goal we conceded, we panicked a little bit. This is part of the process of this squad.
“We had one player born in [2007], three players ‘06, four players ‘04, one player ‘03, another player ‘02, and the oldest player ‘97. The second-oldest player born in 02. It’s part of their learning process.
“It’s normal. They are human beings, they are young, they need to improve, they need to understand, they need to live through some extra things to get better.”
He added that they will have to learn not to be so rash in their decision-making, with Delap’s sending off the fifth time a Chelsea player has seen red figuratively and literally this season.
“It's also something that we need to learn. Something that we have to do better. And for sure, no doubt that in the future we're going to be better also on that.”
Chelsea are still figuring out what the season has in store for them, but one thing they are sure of is that they want to play with the ball.
In this regard, Maresca was defiant: “In the future we are going to be fantastic. I prefer the ball as much as we can.”
Chelsea are also mindful of Tottenham’s threat from long throw-ins, having conceded from throws in each of their last two games, but have not yet been seduced by their effectiveness this season. “Everyone is trying to use different weapons.”
Maresca wants total control. But to get that, he must first get his players to control their emotions and the fine margins.
Both of these things will be put to the test in what promises to be a fiery encounter with a Tottenham side who have taken 13 points from their last 18 home games, struggling for control on home soil.
