Issues in Enzo Maresca's squad laid bare as Blues prepare to face Liverpool

Despite spending heavily again in the summer, glaring issues remain within Enzo Maresca's squad and Chelsea have underwhelmed to start the 2025/26 campaign as a result.

Coming into the season, hopes for the Blues were sky high. The triumph in the Club World Cup and the summer transfer window of investment left some tipping Maresca's side to push for the Premier League title.

There is still time, of course, but the early signs have not been promising.

An unconvincing draw to Crystal Palace started the season and now three defeats across their last five outings, as well as a near miss against League One Lincoln in the Carabao Cup, have piled the pressure on the Chelsea boss and his players heading into the meeting with Liverpool, live on Saturday Night Football.

Here, Sky Sports examines some of the early issues hindering the Blues...

Are Chelsea now worse off?

While their upcoming opponents dominated the headlines in the window with the signings of Hugo Ekitike, Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak for a combined £320m, Chelsea remained one of the more active teams in the top flight.

Joao Pedro, Liam Delap, Jamie Gittens, Jorrel Hato, Facundo Buonanotte, Alejandro Garnacho, Mike Penders, Dario Essugo, Mamadou Sarr and Willian Estevao all arrived.

However, recruitment at Stamford Bridge is led by sporting directors Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley, with the head coach expected to work with the players provided for them.

Of the new signings, Joao Pedro has featured the most with 11 appearances and 794 minutes played across all competitions. Delap, despite being injured since August 30, is second.

There are some extenuating circumstances. Garnacho arrived late in the window and was lacking match fitness, 18-year-old Estevao is still finding his feet in English football and Hato was predominantly signed to provide competition for Marc Cucurella at left-back.

However, the form of players let go by the club has put an unwanted spotlight on the transfer business following the unconvincing start.

Noni Madueke impressed for both England and Arsenal before picking up a knee injury. He was allowed to leave despite starting 30 games under Maresca last season, and was replaced by a combination of Garnacho and Gittens - neither of whom have hit the ground running.

Djordje Petrovic, after thriving on loan at Strasbourg last season, was also allowed to leave and is now tied second for clean sheets in the league with Bournemouth.

While Nicolas Jackson scored his first Champions League goal for Bayern Munich on Tuesday, teenage winger Tyrique George was toiling up front for Chelsea against Benfica in the same game Joao Pedro was sent off.

Has the £296.5m spent been justified or are Chelsea actually worse off following the window?

Do Chelsea have a top-class goalkeeper?

Despite signing 10 new players, it was perhaps surprising that a new No 1 wasn't among them, with 20-year-old goalkeeper Penders loaned to Strasbourg after arriving from Belgium.

Sky Sports News reported in June that Chelsea walked away from a deal for AC Milan's Mike Maignan, a player who wanted the move to Stamford Bridge, due to their reluctance to pay the £25m asking price for the France No 1 - a figure that would have marked their fourth-lowest fee of the window.

The position now remains a topic of discussion for all the wrong reasons.

Sanchez's red card at Manchester United ultimately cost his team, but aside from the glaring error, he also ranks 20th for post-shot expected goals, a metric used to measure a goalkeeper's shot-stopping ability.

Meanwhile, Maignan is sixth in Serie A for that statistic and has an 83.3 per cent save rate, the third highest in the league.

Centre of defence also neglected

Goalkeeper is not the only position in which it is questionable whether Chelsea sufficiently strengthened in the summer.

After losing Levi Colwill - who started 35 Premier League games last season - to an ACL injury, Maresca spoke publicly about why he thought Chelsea needed to sign another centre-back, while admitting they were also looking for "internal solutions".

Hato - a left-footed defender who can play in the middle or left of defence - had already arrived but the new centre-back Maresca craved did not arrive.

He is now relying on Trevoh Chalobah - another player who has contributed to their tally of three red cards so far this season - Wesley Fofana, Tosin Adarabioyo, Benoit Badiashile, Josh Acheampong and Hato, who has only played 145 minutes since signing.

That means Chelsea's centre-back options are essentially the same as last season, except with Hato replacing Colwill. Jamie Carragher warned that the Blues needed a new star defender almost a year ago - yet that view was not shared by the sporting directors at Stamford Bridge.

But, six games into the season, only Brighton - who beat the Blues 3-1 in their last league outing - have conceded more goals than Maresca's among the top-half sides.

Chelsea chose not to reinforce two key areas of their team ahead of a season in which they should be aiming to challenge the best sides in the country. Add in a few injuries and Maresca has been left with holes in his squad and new players whom he appears yet to trust.

Luckily for them, Arne Slot and Liverpool are experiencing similar problems ahead of their trip to west London.

A win for Chelsea would potentially propel them into the top four and knock Liverpool off the top of the table.

But a fourth defeat in six games for Maresca's side, who are only four points above 19th-placed West Ham, could see them tumble into the bottom half - a scenario that would ask serious questions of the head coach and those who built his squad.