It sums up the uneasy state of affairs at Chelsea that the new head coach winning his first match in charge was not enough to stop the mutiny. This was a controlled, clinical performance from Liam Rosenior’s second string, who strolled into the fourth round of the FA Cup after a 5-1 win over a game but limited Charlton Athletic, but once again the big talking point was the travelling support spewing venom in the direction of their unpopular owners.
Dissatisfaction with the project is not going away. It did not even matter when Rosenior looked at his bench with Chelsea 3-1 up in the second half and decided to give Estevão Willian a runout against tired, lowly Championship opposition. The Brazilian winger is one of the best young players in the world and his runs were soon making Charlton’s defenders dizzy, but even signings like Estêvão have done little to sway the view of a fanbase united in opposition to an ownership almost four years in and still to convince naysayers that their unique vision will bring success.
It has been a tough few weeks. Enzo Maresca’s departure was messy, his relationship with the board broken, leading sceptics to accuse Chelsea of becoming unmanageable. Rosenior, after all, is the fifth head coach since Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital bought the club in 2022.
The 41-year-old has signed a six-and-a-half-year deal but even the manner of his appointment was unusual, bearing in mind the sensitivities around BlueCo, the consortium that owns both Chelsea and Strasbourg, taking the Englishman away from the smaller club under its control with the season in full swing.
Rosenior has had to hit back at the idea that he is a puppet for Chelsea’s owners. In the away end, though, the dissent started early. There were chants for Roman Abramovich in the first minute and it was not long before the travelling fans were spewing venom about Clearlake, the private equity firm with a major say in Chelsea’s trading model being controlled by a team of five sporting directors.
Rosenior was aware of the unrest but did not want to dwell on it. “If your fans are happy it means you’re doing a good job,” he said. “This is a team that won the Club World Cup five months ago. We’re a good team.”
Yet the jury certainly remains out on some of the squad building. Some of Chelsea’s problems this season have come after rotating, although Rosenior was never going to send out his strongest side with the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final against Arsenal to come on Wednesday. Cole Palmer and Reece James were rested and there were rare runouts in attack for Facundo Buonanotte, Jamie Gittens and Marc Guiu.
A vocal presence on the touchline, Rosenior was happy with Buonanotte, Gittens, Guiu and Alejandro Garnacho. There was no great shift away from Maresca’s system. Chelsea dominated possession throughout the first half and were patient against a deep defence.
Charlton, five points above the Championship’s bottom three after one win in their last six games, offered little. That the opening goal came from Jorrel Hato, though, was a reminder that this is a chance to turn over a new leaf. The 19-year-old was in for the suspended Marc Cucurella at left-back and looked eager to prove that Maresca was wrong to discard him after a nightmare display against Qarabag in November.
Hato kept popping up in dangerous positions and eventually rammed a loose ball past Mannion to make it 1-0. Chelsea pushed for more at the start of the second half. It was 2-0 when the unmarked Tosin Adarabioyo glanced Buonanotte’s free-kick in at the near post.
However, Rosenior must curb his side’s tendency to give away soft goals. Charlton had hope when Miles Leaburn capitalised on poor marking from a corner and halved the deficit in the 57th minute. “We need to improve,” Rosenior said. “They are the basics I talk about. I was disappointed to concede but our reaction was magnificent.”
Chelsea responded when Garnacho drove in from the left, Buonanotte had a shot saved and Guiu collected his second goal of the season by turning the loose ball past Mannion.
There was time for Pedro Neto to come on and drive in a fourth. Estevão then capped off a sparkling cameo by winning a penalty for Enzo Fernández, another of the substitutes, to score with the final kick of the game. But the resentment towards Clearlake lingered.