Maresca injury update on regular starter could be terrible news for Chelsea – one game out at least | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca has just taken his press conference after Chelsea’s defeat to Aston Villa in the Premier League this evening.

The manager had to address a few topics, including how his team had been unable to complete their win despite a dominant first half performance and a lead.

“In this moment it’s difficult to analyse because we need to understand again why when we concede a goal we struggle to manage the game in a better way,” the manager said.

“Again, it can be experience or it can be that we need to analyse and we need to understand that.”

Maresca has bad news update on Cucurella after sub

Marc Cucurella warms up for Chelsea. (Photo by Luke Walker/Getty Images)

Also on the agenda was Marc Cucurella, who was taken off in the second half as part of a series of changes which really took the wind out of his team’s sails and altered the course of the game.

“Because he was complaining about hamstring, so we don’t know if it’s an injury now or not. So he asked for the change,” Maresca said.

Cucurella has been played to the limit this season, and it’s quite amazing that he hasn’t already picked up an injury. Even if this is just a minor bit of soreness, they surely have to now rest the Spaniard on Tuesday night. Otherwise they risk losing him for more time just as things start to get busy.

So even in the best case, we will be looking at a game out for Cucu.

In other news…

Maresca also spoke about the decision to take off Cole Palmer, who reacted with some frustration to the decision.

Despite Chelsea dominating (and despite scoring their goal), Joao Pedro was just not good enough for Chelsea in the game, failing to create enough threat for his team.