YOU can question why Chelsea were playing over 3,000 miles from home – but the bigger farce is the fact they are in the Conference League at all.
The travel for their trip to the outer reaches of Kazakhstan, where it was -14C when Enzo Maresca’s men landed, was always going to be a bigger concern than the Astana side waiting there for them.
This latest Conference League encounter brought three goals, five debuts and a sixth win on the bounce for the Blues – taking them into the Last 16 after Christmas.
All very good, all very cheery – all rather pointless at this stage of the competition.
Maresca insists he will only ever focus on the next step of the competition, but if they are not in Wroclaw for May’s final something will have gone horribly wrong.
Chelsea sit top of the group stage, having won five from five, scoring 21 goals and conceding just four.
After the ordeal of their eight-hour flight, skirting between two warzones on the way, the Blues’ youngsters showed fine discipline in Almaty.
Maresca had told his Chelsea squad to try and remain on English time during their travels.
And for the most part they made this look like an afternoon stroll on a heavy surface cleared of snow by undersoil heating.
Pedro Neto’s punishment for picking up a suspension for Sunday’s meeting with Brentford was a seat on the flight east.
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The winger was the only player who started at Tottenham to make the journey, but made a real difference.
After seeing an early effort denied by Astana’s beanie-wearing keeper Mukhammedzhan Seysen, Neto set up the first two goals for Marc Guiu.
https://twitter.com/footballontnt/status/1867241417510154551The opener, though, was all to do with the Spaniard.
The former Barcelona man collected the ball wide right and strode past the Astana defence like they were training mannequins before finishing at the near post.
Having shown his pace and power, the second was pure instinct – given Guiu could hardly have known what was going in.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall fed Neto out wide, with his cross finding the back of the net off the side of Guiu’s torso.
Having raced into a two-goal lead, Chelsea eased off until, 20 minutes later, Renato Veiga added a third.
The Portuguese was left free in the Astana box to rise and nod in a Dewsbury-Hall corner.
https://twitter.com/footballontnt/status/1867242024757252412Maresca’s men were cruising, though the hosts offered a sharpener on the brink at half-time as captain Marin Tomasov cut inside Veiga and poked into the far corner.
Tomasov’s goal gave Astana a bit more bite after the break and Filip Jorgensen had to tip over another effort from the Croatian.
Maresca started making the changes and Harvey Vale almost scored with his first touch, while Tyrique George and Dewsbury-Hall both went close.
But the second half was a display of control and maturity from a very young group.
On Chelsea march, with anyone who matters tucked up warm at home and ready for Brentford on Sunday.
