Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has shut down talks of his team’s mishaps in their latest Premier League outing to direct attention towards his side’s upcoming UEFA Champions League meeting with Portuguese side, Benfica, now managed by legendary Chelsea manager, José Mourinho.
Maresca witnessed his side fall apart last weekend at Old Trafford, leading to them suffering a 2 – 1 defeat to the struggling Manchester United. The ghosts of that match seemed to follow them into week 6, as they also fell apart against Brighton and Hove Albion, this time, at their home ground of Stamford Bridge.
The Seagulls took home all three points from their visit to London, despite their hosts going ahead in the first half. Trevoh Chalobah would get himself sent off in the second half, opening the floodgates for the Seagulls to swarm in. The match ended 3 – 1 in favour of the visitors, and Chelsea were subject to more scrutiny in the media.
Maresca, in his post-match comments, spoke about his team’s penchant for giving “presents” to their opponents, before turning everyone’s attention to their upcoming Champions League clash against Mourinho’s Benfica.
“The frustration is there because we scored one and could’ve scored more than one,” Maresca reflected. “If we score the second one, even with ten players, it’s better to defend a two-goal lead. It’s a moment we’re giving away presents, and we cannot continue to do this.”
On the upcoming Benfica clash, the Italian manager said: “We have 72 hours and we go again. Fortunately, we have the game in three days, so it’s a matter of recovering energy and we will try to win on Tuesday.”
Defender, Jorrel Hato, also spoke on the defeat, which also turned out to be the Blues’ first home defeat of the season.
“I would say the first half was good from our side,” said the 19-year-old, who was making his home debut for the Blues after joining them from AFC Ajax Amsterdam in the summer. “We had a lot of possession, we created chances, we scored to make it 1-0 as well. We were playing well and scored a good goal.
“In the second half, after 10 minutes we got a red card and went down to 10 men. After that we knew it was going to be a difficult game, but all I can say is that this loss is very disappointing.
“Of course in the last game against Man United in the first half we also had a red card and now it happened again. You can see it just affects the game, when we are down to 10 men against 11, and we did it for nearly 40 minutes yesterday. You can see it’s very difficult.
“We knew of course they would be playing on the sides and coming in with crosses. I think we could have done better, for sure. We’re very disappointed because we knew it would be difficult, but I think we didn’t give a lot of chances away before their equaliser. So, as I said, we’re very disappointed.”