LONDON (AP) \u2014 Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca expressed his unhappiness at a lack of support at the club and said he had just endured his worst period since arriving in the summer of 2024.<\/p>\n
Maresca didn\u2019t specify who he was referring to, but stressed it wasn\u2019t Chelsea fans.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last 48 hours has been the worst since I joined the club because many people didn\u2019t support me and the team,\u201d Maresca said after Chelsea\u2019s 2-0 win over Everton in the Premier League on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Asked if he meant internally at Chelsea, he replied: \u201cIn general. In general.\u201d<\/p>\n
The victory at Stamford Bridge ended a four-game winless run in all competitions for Chelsea and lifted the team into fourth place in the league.<\/p>\n
Asked whether he was talking about the club\u2019s supporters, Maresca added: \u201cI love the fans and we are very happy with the fans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maresca was responding to a question about the performance of Malo Gusto \u2014 who set up Chelsea\u2019s first goal for Cole Palmer and scored the second \u2014 before making his startling claim.<\/p>\n
On Friday, he said only victories would stop fans from complaining on social media and reflected on his 30 years in football, saying: \u201cI know that if you don\u2019t win, everyone complains.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whether his comments after Everton were directed at online reaction or elsewhere was unclear, but he was quick to back his players after they brought to an end a run that included losses at Leeds and Atalanta and a goalless draw at Bournemouth.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith so many problems they are doing very well after a complicated week,\u201d Maresca said<\/p>\n
Praise for Palmer<\/p>\n
Palmer\u2019s goal was his first in three months. The England playmaker was starting a second straight match in the Premier League after seeing the first half of his campaign blighted by a groin injury that has restricted him to seven games in all competitions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith Cole we are a better team,\u201d Maresca said. \u201cI really praise the players because we played 16 Premier League games \u2014 five without Moises Caicedo, 11 without Cole Palmer, almost all of them without Liam Delap. No matter who is playing is doing fantastic.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe played almost all season without our best player. This is the reason why I\u2019m so happy for the players. I would like people from the outside to appreciate that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Palmer said he wasn\u2019t at his best yet because he was \u201cstill dealing with an injury.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just a matter of not doing too much too soon,\u201d Palmer told the BBC.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP soccer: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer<\/p>\n
The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON (AP) \u2014 Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca expressed his unhappiness at a lack of support at the club…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-343277","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-soccer","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343277","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=343277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}