Maresca wants to see how Nicolas Jackson deals with the competition” after two impressive assists start the war | OneFootball

Nicolas Jackson and Liam Delap each got an assist as Chelsea beat LAFC last night, the first chapter in the competition between the two since the latter’s arrival as a £30m signing from Ipswich a couple of weeks ago.

Jackson slid a beautiful pass through for Pedro Neto, then to seal the game Delap arced in a nice cross to the foot of Enzo Fernandez.

Maresca on Delap’s competition with Jackson

Liam Delap trains in the USA. (Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC)

After the game, their manager was asked about their emerging rivalry and how it can help them both:

“I’m curious to see how Nico reacts. Last season it was him and Marc Guiu,” Enzo Maresca said.

“In any case, Marc Guiu is very young. I’m encouraged to see how Nico deals with the competition. Both are very good. Hopefully both can score goals or get an assist like Liam did today. I prefer to have four, five guys who score 10-12 goals each than one striker with 40 goals. Enzo scored again today which is good.”

Both will get plenty of games, and both should get plenty of goals this season.

Maresca addresses Palmer final questions

There was another interesting angle on the questions at full time – on Cole Palmer’s comments after the Conference League final, where he appeared to hit out at some of Maresca’s tactics.

The Chelsea coach brushed off any idea of a dispute, and instead rather turned it around on his charge:

“After the Conference League final, he [Palmer] said he was quite bored receiving the ball but decided to do something different. I said to him you can do that from the first minute, why did you wait? We ask him to do that because we are happy he does that. Cole is our best player, a top player.”