press conference<\/a>. \u201cI don\u2019t think there is any game that can be easy. They are all difficult.<\/p>\n\u201cSunderland have shown since the season started that they are a very good team who play and work together. They have the same points as us, so that says a lot about how good they\u2019ve been.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Italian is expected to field another youthful line-up, with the squad\u2019s average age the lowest in the Premier League this season.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
Maresca admitted that managing such a young group requires patience and constant guidance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main thing for me is to help them day by day,\u201d he added. \u201cThey are all good players, but they need to understand how we want to play.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want to improve the team, you need to improve players first.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among those attracting attention is teenager Estevao Willian, who scored against Ajax after being handed the ball for a penalty by Enzo Fernandez. Maresca hailed the gesture as evidence of growing unity.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
\u201cThat moment showed how together the team is,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were pleased about the win, but the main thing was Enzo giving the penalty to Estevao. It showed the spirit we have right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marc Guiu could feature again after his own breakthrough performance, though Maresca revealed he had previously challenged the striker\u2019s attitude in training.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was not training well,\u201d the coach admitted. \u201cWe spoke, he changed, and he got his chance. Since then, he\u2019s been fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
Sunderland are seventh in the table after collecting 14 points from their opening eight matches \u2013 their best start to a top-flight campaign in 25 years.<\/p>\n
The Black Cats are unbeaten in their last 13 away games in London and have shown they can compete with established Premier League teams.<\/p>\n
Chelsea are clear favourites, but Sunderland should not be underestimated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chelsea return to Premier League action on Saturday when they host Sunderland at Stamford Bridge. The Blues head…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,568,562,70121,29820,112135,112133,112134,574,561,82,33876,63434,49455],"class_list":{"0":"post-237471","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-champions-league","11":"tag-chelsea","12":"tag-enzo-fernandez","13":"tag-enzo-maresca","14":"tag-estevao","15":"tag-estevao-willian","16":"tag-marc-guiu","17":"tag-premier-league","18":"tag-soccer","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-stamford-bridge","21":"tag-sunderland","22":"tag-winning-streak"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}