Maresca Concerned As Chelsea Winless Run Continues
Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has expressed his concern after the team played out a disappointing 2-2 draw with Bournemouth at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday night.
The Blues took the lead through Cole Palmer in the 13th minute but they failed to convert their chances, taking the slim lead into the break.
Bournemouth bounced back immediately after the restart when Justin Kluivert converted from the spot after Caicedo fouled Antoine Semenyo.
Semenyo stunned the home side with a stunning effort at the edge of the box to make it 2-1.
It was looking like a defeat for Maresca’s men until Reece James scored a late free-kick to rescue a point for the hosts.
The Blues have now gone five matches without winning in the Premier League, dealing a major blow to their Champions League hopes.
A win for Newcastle United against Wolves on Wednesday will see Chelsea slip out of the top four.
Maresca is concerned about the team’s reaction to conceding as they battle to rediscover their early season form.
He said: “I think we deserved much more, especially in the first half. The negative thing is that we changed how we played after conceding. We dropped back.
“The game was completely in our control and it’s something we need to improve.
“I have concerns always, even when we are winning matches. This is the Premier League, when you don’t create chances and don’t score then you have to be more concerned.
The Italian manager also blamed the team’s inability to take their chances for their poor run of form.
He said: “The most important thing is to create chances. But also we need to be clinical. It happened already in the last four, five games. Happened many times. Palace was the last game away, we were 1-0 up and created many chances, we didn’t score and then in the end we conceded. Against Bournemouth, more or less, the same happened.
“The only thing is in the previous game we never changed, we never dropped after we conceded. Tonight we dropped after we conceded the penalty. They changed a little bit, we dropped a little bit. This is something that we need to improve.”
Reece James scored his first Chelsea goal in two years after returning from a hamstring injury, he has urged his teammates to be ruthless in their finishing to end the slump.
He said: “I knew the free kick was shooting distance, I felt like that side of the goal was open, I tried to finish it as well as I could.
“There was a period when I was scoring quite frequently and I haven’t had that feeling in quite a long time through injuries and setbacks. I’m happy to be back with the team and get on the scoresheet again and help the team get a point.
“I don’t. I think we had a few clear-cut chances that we should have taken in the first half and maybe put the game to bed but if you don’t take chances sometimes that can come back to bite you in the ass.
“I think it’s across football, globally, if you have chances in a game and you don’t take them it could come back and hurt you.”
Chelsea will return to Premier League action against Wolves at Stamford Bridge on Monday.
Maresca Concerned As Chelsea Winless Run Continues is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
