Chelsea made the worst possible start to their Premier League match against Manchester United, with goalkeeper Robert Sanchez sent off minutes before star forward Cole Palmer was substituted with the Blues 1-0 down.
The stage was set only five minutes into a chaotic match at Old Trafford, with Sanchez receiving a straight red card for a last-man challenge on Bryan Mbeumo, scything the United forward down after Benjamin Sesko had sent his teammate clean through.
The red card was compounded minutes later when Bruno Fernandes opened the scoring, with the United captain narrowly beating the offside trap to tap in from close range.
Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca initially reacted to the sending off by bringing on substitute goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen in place of Brazilian winger Estevao, while Tosin Adarabioyo also came on in place of Pedro Neto.
However, the Italian made the surprise decision to bring off star man Palmer too, with the England international making way for Andrey Santos in the 21st minute.
Palmer, who made his return from a groin injury against Brentford only last weekend, looked visibly agitated as he came off the pitch – stopping to exchange words with Maresca – and seemed to gesture towards his groin. He later re-emerged with ice on the affected area in what was presumably an enforced change rather than a tactical one.
That change means the visitors have made three substitutes already before half-time, with plenty of pressure on the Blues and Maresca as they look to bounce back from last week’s last-gaps 2-2 draw with Brentford.
And things soon went from bad bad to even worse for the Blue as Casemiro made it 2-0 on 36 minutes as Reece James shanked a clearance straight up in the air, Harry Maguire headed across goal and Casemiro nodded in to seemingly ease the pressure on under-fire Ruben Amorim.
