Defensive Enzo Maresca makes big claim about Chelsea’s emergency change “before the warm-up” | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca could have been delighted about Chelsea’s win over Leicester today – and at full time he was certainly jumping around very excitedly.

But he was a little defensive when speaking to the BBC’s Match of the Day team however, after another game where his team failed to spark in attack, making some excuses and explaining why he had been so thrilled with 3 points against a rotten Foxes side:

“We needed to change the plan before the warm-up and this is why we are so happy, because we adapted,” the coach said.

“Don’t forget that Leicester against Arsenal for 80 minutes was 0-0. It’s not easy. We created enough to be one goal ahead of them.”

We’re not sure quite what change of plan was needed before the warmup – presumably they knew that Reece James and Malo Gusto would be missing before that point, and that Robert Sanchez would be back starting in goal. We’re not sure what other last minute changes there might have been.

Maresca defenders struggling Palmer once again

Cole Palmer looks rueful after missing his first penalty for Chelsea. (Photo by Chris Lee/Chelsea FC)

Maresca also addressed the Cole Palmer penalty miss that’s going to make about as many headlines as the win. As he has been doing regularly in recent weeks, he called for calm and insisted that it’s all going to work itself out.

He also noted something we didn’t know – that Palmer had been ill overnight, possibly with the same bug that kept out Reece James today, and hailed his old goalie, Mads Hermansen:

“The Leicester ‘keeper is brilliant and Cole is going to score more penalties and miss more. He didn’t feel well in the night. The people need to understand the effort he made to be there. Cole is a top player. Everything is normal now.”