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At a Glance

• The Chelsea forward hands Chelsea the advantage in the opening period.
• The Italian outfit the stronger side after the interval and equalise through Gianluca Scamacca.
• The Belgian attacker scores a late decisive goal for the home side.
• The defeat means Chelsea fall to 11th in the group stage of the Champions League.
• The top eight qualify automatically for the last 16.

The London club's ambitions of securing a place automatically for the European Cup knockouts were suffered a setback as Atalanta came from behind to claim victory in Bergamo.

Each club went into this match with matching points tallies in the league phase of this year's competition, having secured three victories, tied one, and suffered one defeat to sit on ten points.

For large parts there was little to choose between them in this contest too, even though Chelsea went ahead in the first half when Joao Pedro turned in the captain's cross.

But The Serie A side consistently appeared a danger going forwards, with ex- Charlton and Everton attacker Ademola Lookman problems for the defence.

James fired wide in the second half but the home team raised the intensity and deservedly levelled when former West Ham United striker nodded home a centering pass.

The winger hammered a powerful shot straight at the keeper but Atalanta secured the winner in the closing stages when the Chelsea defence backed off Charles de Ketelaere, who seized the opportunity with a low shot.

The visitors tried to rescue a point late on but a excellent stop by the Atalanta goalkeeper kept out Joao Pedro.

The final score means Chelsea fall out of the top eight—the spots that qualify automatically for the knockouts—to eleventh with two league phase fixtures left to play.

The Bergamo club, meanwhile, leap up to third place, three points clear of the Londoners.

Chelsea Analysis - Concerning Sequence Persists

This was a extremely frustrating outcome for Chelsea as even a point was keeping them in a strong position to achieve the top eight finish they require to avoid the uncertainty of the qualifying play-off round.

But they let their concentration slip in their defensive duties with seven minutes remaining and Atalanta capitalised completely.

The Italian side are in good form at the moment so this was always going to be a difficult examination for the visitors, but they will be frustrated to be leaving with nothing after taking the early advantage.

But the broader context is that this perpetuates Chelsea's worrying sequence of results in all competitions.

Since defeating Barcelona 3-0 at the close of November they are now winless in their last four matches.

Excessive Changes Proving Costly?

Chelsea boss Maresca made five changes for this game as he persisted with his policy of rotating players in and out of the first team.

The changes here came after he implemented the same number for the loss to Leeds United and six for the tie with Bournemouth prior to the journey to Atalanta.

Maresca will view rotation as necessary as he attempts to manage players' workloads and challenge both at home and in Europe, but he maintained the key nucleus of players remains the unchanged for crucial games.

"I believe in this match [in] the starting lineup we had eight or nine players who played against Tottenham Hotspur, FC Barcelona, and the Gunners," he said.

"If you see the five changes that we did compared to Bournemouth it may be different but it is the eight or nine players who played Barcelona.

"The ones who played this evening are the ones who feature in almost all the games."

What's Next for These Clubs?

The Blues' next Champions League fixture sees them host Pafos on Wednesday, 21 January (8pm GMT).

Atalanta, meanwhile, host Athletic Club at the same time.