“He’s ready…” – Enzo Maresca says wonderkid could make Premier League starts | OneFootball

Chelsea’s press conference today was rather interesting, with Enzo Maresca speaking on a number of topics.

He was asked about Estevao, who started and scored in midweek, with the clamour rising for the Brazilian to start a Premier League game now.

Maresca made it clear that Estevao was physically ready to start – but didn’t make it sound like that was something we should expect tomorrow.

Maresca on potential Estevao start after midweek goal

Enzo Maresca speaks to Chelsea TV at full time.

“He’s ready to start…. For sure he’s ready to start. But if Estevao starts, another one is on the bench,” the manager explained.

“And probably the other one also wants to start. We just try to do the best for Estevao. We are helping him in terms of adapt to England. Again, last week he was complaining about it being cold. Last week was still October. Imagine December, January! He has to adapt. He’s happy. He’s doing fantastic. For sure he’s a talented player for this club.”

It’s a sensible policy of helping the teenager adapt slowly, and we’re all in favour of it. As long as we see him not long after the 60th minute, we’re fine with him being a sub for now. Pedro Neto is well placed to tire out the full back, then Estevao to take advantage of that in the second half.

In other news…

In the same press conference, Enzo Maresca was asked about whether he thought his team had improved on last year, and whether he thought results had been as he expected so far. You can imagine his answer.

Reece James spoke to the media post game midweek and had a lot of praise for his teammate Estevao, who had opened the scoring but saw his teammates let him down as the game wore on.