Dressing room factor which means Chelsea care more about EFL Cup than normal this year | OneFootball

Chelsea had to call on their big guns last night to beat Cardiff and qualify for the EFL Cup semi finals.

Enzo Maresca tried to rotate things, but ended up bringing on a chunk of his regulars to get the job done against a spirited Bluebirds outfit. There were serious celebrations after the final whistle as the Blues ran out 3-1 winners.

Why Chelsea are valuing the cups so highly this year

Enzo Maresca celebrates at full time. (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images)

Pedro Neto got the crucial goal, and asked after the game about what the Carabao Cup meant to the players, the winger made it clear what the attitude in the dressing room is.

‘It’s really important,” Neto insisted when talking about the importance of the competition.

“The manager said in the last 18 months this is the third semi-final we had, so we are really happy with that. We got the win, so we are already looking for the next game. We are Chelsea, we want to win trophies. Our mindset is to win all the games.”

It does matter to everyone, that much is clear from the way that no time was wasted in bringing on Neto and his fellow first team players when the result was in doubt. Enzo Maresca has launched a dangerous power play against those above him, and he needs results to back it up.

That means cups – and that means this trophy is going to be as valued as we’ve seen it for years.

In other news…

Neto also spoke about the goal that Chelsea conceded and pointed out that it was probably due to the team’s focus on defending a flurry of corners that preceded the cross that came in.

Enzo Maresca was forced to speak a little about his tensions behind the scenes, and made a pretty amazing claim about his relationship with the sporting directors.