{"id":314681,"date":"2025-12-13T23:41:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T23:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/314681\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T23:41:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T23:41:07","slug":"enzo-maresca-chelsea-boss-describes-build-up-to-everton-game-as-worst-48-hours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/314681\/","title":{"rendered":"Enzo Maresca: Chelsea boss describes build-up to Everton game as &#8216;worst 48 hours&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/teams\/chelsea\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chelsea<\/a> manager Enzo Maresca described the build-up to Saturday&#8217;s victory over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/teams\/everton\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Everton<\/a> as &#8220;the worst 48 hours&#8221; since he arrived at the club.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Italian delivered a cryptic message in his post-match news conference despite the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/live\/cp89wz1dpjpt\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2-0 win at Stamford Bridge<\/a> courtesy of goals from Cole Palmer and Malo Gusto.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The three points, which lifted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/teams\/chelsea\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chelsea<\/a> back into the Premier League top four, might have improved the mood after defeat at Atalanta in the Champions League extended <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/teams\/chelsea\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chelsea<\/a>&#8216;s winless run to four matches.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">However, when asked about Gusto&#8217;s assist and overall performance, Maresca surprisingly revealed his frustration over the previous two days at the club.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The way the players want to learn has been fantastic and this is the reason why I praise them &#8211; because with so many problems, they are doing very well after a complicated week,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Since I joined the club, the last 48 hours have been the worst because many people didn&#8217;t support us.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Pressed on what he meant, the former Leicester City manager added: &#8220;Worst 48 hours since I joined the club because people didn&#8217;t support me and the team.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">When asked if he meant people internally at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/teams\/chelsea\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chelsea<\/a>, he replied: &#8220;In general. In general,&#8221; before clarifying when asked if it was aimed at fans or the media: &#8220;I love the fans and we are very happy with the fans.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Maresca also highlighted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/teams\/chelsea\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chelsea<\/a>&#8216;s injury and suspension issues, pointing out they had been without star attacker Cole Palmer for much of the season, as well as losing key midfielder Moises Caicedo to a three-match ban and striker Liam Delap to two significant injuries.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I really praise the players and the squad because we played 16 Premier League games, five of them without Moises Caicedo, 11 of them without Cole Palmer, almost all of them without Liam Delap,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;And this squad, no matter who is playing, they are doing fantastic. Today was five games in 12 days so for sure when you see Cole Palmer there, we said many times that he&#8217;s our best player but we play almost all season without our best player.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We play five games in the Premier League without Moises Caicedo. This is the reason why I&#8217;m so happy for the players and it&#8217;s something that I would like people outside to appreciate because the effort from the players is fantastic.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/teams\/chelsea\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chelsea<\/a>&#8216;s victory over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/teams\/everton\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Everton<\/a> consolidated their position in fourth in the Premier League table, with a Carabao Cup quarter-final at Cardiff and a league trip to Newcastle to come next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca described the build-up to Saturday&#8217;s victory over Everton as &#8220;the worst 48 hours&#8221; since&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-314681","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}