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At a Glance

• Joao Pedro gives Chelsea the lead in the opening period.
• The Italian outfit the stronger side after the break and equalise through Gianluca Scamacca.
• Charles de Ketelaere grabs a last-gasp winner for the home side.
• The defeat means Chelsea slide to eleventh place in the group stage of the tournament.
• The top eight progress automatically for the knockout phase.

The London club's hopes of securing a place automatically for the Champions League knockout stages were suffered a setback as their Italian opponents came from behind to triumph in their home stadium.

Each club went into this game with the same points tallies in the initial stage of this season's competition, having secured three victories, drawn, and lost to sit on 10 points.

For much of the game there was not much to separate them in this contest too, even though Chelsea got their noses in front in the opening 45 minutes when the Brazilian converted Reece James' delivery.

But Atalanta remained a danger going on the attack, with former Premier League attacker Ademola Lookman issues for the defence.

Reece James fired wide in the after the break but the home team upped the pressure and justly equalised when former West Ham United striker Gianluca Scamacca a centering pass.

The winger drove a powerful shot straight at the goalkeeper but they scored the winner in the closing stages when the Blues defence retreated from the midfielder, who took full advantage with a low strike.

Chelsea tried to salvage a point late on but a brilliant stop by Marco Carnesecchi kept out Pedro.

The final score means Chelsea drop out of the top eight—the positions that progress automatically for the next round—to 11th with two group stage games left to play.

The Bergamo club, in contrast, leap up to third place, three points ahead of the Blues.

Chelsea Analysis - Worrying Form Persists

This was a deeply frustrating result for Chelsea as even a point was keeping them well placed to achieve the top eight position they require to avoid the uncertainty of the qualifying play-off round.

But they lacked concentration in defence with seven minutes remaining and their opponents seized the moment.

The Italians are in fine fettle at the moment so this was always going to be a tough test for the visitors, but they will be disappointed to be departing with no points after taking the lead.

But the wider issue is that this extends Chelsea's troubling run of form in all tournaments.

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

Too Many Rotations Turning Out to Be Costly?

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca enacted five rotations for this match as he persisted with his strategy of rotating players in and out of the starting 11.

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

Maresca will see squad rotation as essential as he attempts to handle players' minutes and challenge both at home and abroad, but he stated 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 featured against Tottenham Hotspur, Barcelona, and Arsenal," he stated.

"If you look at the five alterations that we made compared to Bournemouth it may be a change but it involves the eight or nine players playing in that match.

"The players who played tonight are the individuals who feature in almost all the matches."

What's Next for These Clubs?

The Blues' next European game sees them host the Cypriot side on the coming Wednesday (20:00 GMT).

The Italian team, on the other hand, host Athletic Bilbao at the same time.