“He says…” – Enzo Maresca asked about the most worrying part of Chelsea defeat | OneFootball

There was a lot for Enzo Maresca to talk about in his press conference after Chelsea were beaten 3-1 by Bayern in their return to the Champions League.

Maresca addresses Palmer injury concerns

Cole Palmer holds his groin against Bayern Munich.

We noticed Cole Palmer holding his groin at full time, and we’ve been worried ever since. Unsurprisingly, journalists in the Allianz Arena noticed too, and it was one of the first things the manager was asked about post game.

“Cole, I think, is okay. He said he was okay,” Maresca said, none too convincingly.

We have our doubts. Even if he’s “OK”, he’s clearly got a chronic injury, and playing him every few days is only making it worse. Some tough decisions need to be made, otherwise we risk throwing the whole season away before it’s really got started.

The fact that Manchester United are coming up on Saturday is really worrying. Palmer barely had a break after last season and the Club World Cup, now he’s in the thick of it with a long season to come – and a World Cup at the end of it.

Maresca pleased with Chelsea efforts against

In general, Maresca was pretty pleased with what he had seen. It was an away defeat, but as he said, there’s plenty of points still to play for, and the hardest game of all 8 is now out of the way.

“On terms of experience between them and us, there is a huge difference because of the games they have played, because of the age. We competed in the right way, in this stadium against this team. We still have seven games. I don’t know how many games we need to win, how many we can afford to lose,” Maresca said.

“We have seven more games, so there are plenty of points.”