Chelsea emphasised the depth of talent available to head coach Enzo Maresca as their second-string XI eased to a stylish 4-2 win over Gent at Stamford Bridge to kick-off their Conference League campaign.
The Italian changed his entire starting team from Saturday’s win over Brighton and there was a palpable sense of players desperate to stake their claim to a regular starting berth.
Defender Renato Veiga started the party with an early headed goal, his first for the club, before Pedro Neto rifled in a second moments after half-time.
Japan international Tsuyoshi Watanabe exposed Chelsea’s backline to briefly restore Gent’s interest in the match, giving Maresca something to think about the ease with which the defender had evaded his team’s backline.
But defensive lapses were the only sour note on an otherwise impressive night, Christopher Nkunku continuing his fine goalscoring form to make it 3-1 whilst Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall also netted for the first time in blue, before a late Omri Gandelman consolation for Gent.
Chelsea’s 300th European fixture did not bring the most illustrious opponents, the team that finished seventh in last season’s Belgian Pro League a far cry from the most recent visitors to this ground in the main rounds of a UEFA competition, Real Madrid.
Chelsea completed a 4-0 aggregate loss that night in April 2023, but Gent were a challenge of a lesser order and after weathering early pressure fell behind after 12 minutes, Dewsbury-Hall threading a lovely ball through the channel into Mykhailo Mudryk’s path, the winger’s back-post cross gratefully nodded home by the arriving Veiga.
Maresca had challenged his players to use these European nights to prove their worth and plenty in blue had heeded their head coach’s words, Neto on the right wing a rampaging threat with fleetness of foot to match, whilst Nkunku and Joao Felix hummed with creative energy.
Yet it was Gent that almost levelled via a familiar name. Atsuki Ito knocked the ball to the feet of Andri Gudjohnsen, son of former Blues striker Eidur, who took a touch to come inside the penalty area and hammered a shot that cleared the crossbar by inches.
It took less a minute of the second half for Chelsea to double their lead and it was the impressive Neto, bursting in off the touchline to collect Axel Disasi’s ball over the top, that scored it, evading the attentions of defender Watanabe, whose challenge was weak, and lashing it in at the near post.
If Chelsea’s attacking players had impressed, then there was less for Maresca to feel buoyant about from his defence.
No sooner had the game restarted than Watanabe had made amends for his part in the second goal, wandering into space inside the box, ignored by his closest defender Tosin Adarabioyo, before heading past Filip Jorgensen. In truth, any one of three unmarked Gent players could have applied the finish.
The two-goal lead was restored just past the hour mark though the hosts could count themselves lucky. Veiga appeared to lose control of the ball as he shaped to shoot, and it broke fortuitously to Nkunku who rocketed onto it to score his fourth goal in two starts with a shot that squirmed through the body of goalkeeper Davy Roef.
Dewsbury-Hall added the fourth after Stefan Mitrovic’s tackle on Nkunku dropped at his feet, clipping it home with his instep for his first Chelsea goal.
Substitute Gandelman knocked in a 90th-minute consolation but it could not take the sheen off Maresca’s night.
