'You need the consistency' - Enzo Maresca tells Chelsea squad they must find consistency if they are to challenge for Premier League title after dismal Sunderland defeat

After securing victories over Benfica, Liverpool, Nottingham Forest and Ajax in all competitions, Chelsea headed into the match against Sunderland in fine fettle. Maresca’s men got off to the perfect start when summer signing Alejandro Garnacho scored his first goal for the club following his move from Manchester United, but they were soon pegged back by Sunderland forward Wilson Isidor’s close-range finish. Winger Chemsdine Talbi then popped up with a 94th-minute winner to stun Chelsea, with Sunderland moving up to second in the table following their last-gasp victory.

The result leaves Chelsea five points off Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, who lock horns with Palace at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday. Maresca’s side are also two points behind Pep Guardiola's Manchester City ahead of their trip to Aston Villa on the same day, with Chelsea now hoping results go their way in order to stay in touch with the league’s two main title contenders.

Following Chelsea's defeat against Sunderland, Maresca said in his post-match press conference: "I think we were not good enough in general. We know that in the moment you drop a little, we dropped a little bit, you can lose points against any team in the Premier League. That is so difficult."

When asked if he expected more from his substitutes, Maresca said: "No it’s always difficult for the ones that they go inside. At least they tried. But again, overall we were not good enough.”

And when speaking to Chelsea's official club website, Maresca expressed his frustration at his side's inability to maintain the level they had shown in recent weeks, adding: “If you want to be up there you need the consistency. We won four in a row and yesterday we could have shown that, but because we lost points we didn’t show that.

“If we can have that level and this level, probably it is better to have something in between, to be consistent always in the same way, rather than like this. But I think overall, since we started, we have performed much better compared to Saturday’s game (against Forest).

“Before this game we had exactly the same points as last year after eight games, but we dropped points yesterday. But we are still in October, we need to improve many things, and see where we are in March, April, May.”

Maresca did, however, offer some sympathy to his Chelsea players after revealing a number of them are playing through the pain barrier due to the club’s lengthy injury list. The west Londoners are without Cole Palmer, Levi Colwill, Benoit Badiashile and Liam Delap, while Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo, Andrey Santos, Reece James, Wesley Fofana and Tosin Adarabioyo have only just returned from recent niggles.

Maresca said: “Joao [Pedro] is not training every day because he is managing himself a little bit from a groin injury problem. Moi [Caicedo] is exactly the same, Enzo [Fernandez] is exactly the same.

“We have four or five players that unfortunately, because they have some problems, they cannot work every day and they try to make the effort to play the game.

“Joao in some games has been better, on Saturday he struggled a bit. But yesterday I think all the players struggled, so it’s not just about Joao.”

Chelsea will attempt to build a new winning streak when they travel to Wolves in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday. Maresca’s side then entertain rivals Tottenham in the league on Saturday, before a trip to Qarabag in the Champions League on 5 November. Chelsea will then play host to Wolves in the league on 8 November before the next international break.