Chelsea: Enzo Maresca explains early Estevao substitution as shock Blues defeat by Leeds dissected

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·3. Dezember 2025

Chelsea: Enzo Maresca explains early Estevao substitution as shock Blues defeat by Leeds dissected

Brazilian starlet endured frustrating outing in Leeds

Enzo Maresca believes Estevao will learn a lot from being hooked at half-time to avoid a red card in a game that offered the Brazilian wonderkid a “Welcome to the Premier League” reality check.

After a string of positive results, Chelsea crashed back down to earth with a 3-1 defeat to newly-promoted Leeds.

The Blues were off colour all night at Elland Road as they conceded defensively poor goals to Jaka Bijol and Dominic Calvert-Lewin, either side of a stunning long-range effort from Ao Tanaka. Substitute Pedro Neto halved the deficit after half-time but Leeds scored their third after an individual error by Tosin Adarabioyo.

Maresca made two changes at half-time, bringing on Neto and Malo Gusto in favour of Benoit Badiashile and 18-year-old Estevao, who had started brightly but was on a yellow card following a cynical foul on Gabriel Gudmundsson.

The Brazilian was taken off at half-time for the second game running, having been sacrificed midway through Sunday’s draw with Arsenal.

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“I think the feeling with Estevao was a little bit, ‘welcome to Premier League’, ‘welcome to Leeds’,” Maresca explained post-match.

“The impact for him must have been probably a big, big impact for him. The reason why we changed him is because he was already on a yellow card.

“Sometimes when you are 18, you struggle to manage emotion, so it was better to change him and to avoid any red card.”

He continued, conceding that Leeds had played Chelsea off the park at Elland Road.

Estevao picked up a booking for an out-of-character challenge in the first-half

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“I think they [Leeds] were better than us in all the aspects,” Maresca admitted. “They deserved to win the game. There is nothing that we can take from this game.

“The only thing we can do is try to understand the mistake we have done, try to reset, because again in 48 hours we have one more game [against Bournemouth].

“Tonight's game, there is no one that was at his level or best level. The third goal I think killed the game. On the ball, off the ball, towards the second ball, they were much better than us in all the aspects.”