Enzo Maresca happy with 'most important' win of the season so far

Yesterday at 07:25 PM

Post-match thoughts from the boss

Chelsea made it four wins on the bounce with a four-goal outburst in twenty first-half minutes against Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday, powered by another historic turn from Cole Palmer and plenty of highly entertaining play overall. We may not have kept a clean sheet like in the previous three, thanks to some self-inflicted bits of silliness, but we got the three points at home and finished the day back in the top-four for the first time in nearly two years (since the early days of Graham Potter in October 2022).

Last weekend, head coach Enzo Maresca talked about building momentum and the importance of maintaining it, and he was thus quite pleased with what he called a most important victory today.

"It was the most important game of the season for many reasons [...] because after two wins in a row away, it is always difficult to keep the momentum. Many times, you can win twice away and drop a little bit. It is important to continue with that moment. The game was also exactly the way we planned the game, so it is a good moment."

Chelsea's victory could've been even more impressive had we converted more of our chances (Palmer said he himself could've had "five or six" while Nico Jackson was guilty of multiple big misses in the second half) and if we didn't shoot ourselves in the foot with silly turnovers and lackadaisical giveaways at the back.

Maresca had admitted that his style will concede goals if we drop our concentration like that, but he was pleased with the team continuing to play in the way he wanted them to despite those mistakes.

"Off the ball, we struggled in the first-half because they surprised us. They changed something. On the ball, the game was exactly the way we planned in the first-half and second-half. Then at half-time, we adjusted a little bit the way we were pressing. In the second-half, we didn't concede nothing in terms of chances."

"[...] The two goals we conceded, the first one is a mistake, a normal mistake.

"The second one is [...] about reading the moment. We were 1-0 down and then 3-1 up, in that moment we don't need to take any risks. It's more for them to take risks, not us. I said to Robert and the players, 'from now on, we are going to concede 10 more goals like the way we conceded the second goal'. It's the way we want to play.

"We already scored goals with Robert involved in the build-up but it is important after the mistake, the team continue in the same way. It means they enjoy, they like and they see also that we win games."

-Enzo Maresca; source: Football.London

Mistakes are much easier to forgive when we keep winning. Everyone learns from mistakes, but it's much better when you can learn in a positive environment.

Onwards and upwards!