Marc Cucurella details “very difficult” challenge Enzo Maresca now faces at Chelsea | OneFootball

Marc Cucurella has claimed Chelsea’s recent struggles are down to teams now showing them more respect than they did previously.

The Blues returned to winning ways on Monday night with a hard fought 2-1 win against West Ham to move back into the top four, two points ahead of Manchester City and Newcastle.

It was the first time since December 2013 Chelsea had come from behind to win a home game in the league, and this was just their second win in the last eight league matches.

Cucurella on Chelsea struggles

Chelsea made a brilliant start to the season under Enzo Maresca and at one stage in December they had the chance to momentarily go top of the league if they beat Everton.

The Blues were held to a goalless draw at Goodison and that started a five game winless run, which they ended against Wolves last month.

Cucurella has been one of Chelsea’s best performers this season. (Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC)

The Blues were blowing teams away earlier in the season and were free scoring, but things have been far more difficult recently and Cucurella has a theory why.

“I think now a lot of teams come here just to defend and play counter attacking football,” he told The Mirror.

“When you have 10 or 11 players behind the ball it’s very difficult but we need to stay in our plan and stay patient, I think (against West Ham) we stayed on our plan and we came back.

“That’s very important because now teams start to respect us and maybe they can not play face to face against us so they have to play a defensive system.”

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Cucurella has been one of Chelsea’s stand out performers this season and Troy Deeney admitted he’s been surprised by how good the Spain international has been.

However, with Renato Veiga joining Juventus on loan, there’s a lot of pressure on him to stay fit due to there being no natural left back cover in the squad.