Maresca’s joke about Marc Cucurella and message about why he’s not got the best of Pedro Neto | OneFootball

Chelsea beat Fulham last night with a late comeback at Craven Cottage to keep their Champions League hopes alive.

Once again, post match Enzo Maresca was defiant, and once again he pointed to the positives, claiming he wasn’t surprised his side had turned it around:

“I think we deserved to score, we deserved to score one goal, it was just the way and I think Tyrique, when he scored, it was a nice moment but also give an extra energy to the players to try to win the game in the last minute,” he said of Tyrique George’s late equaliser.

Recent weeks have seen the Blues desperate for more goals as regular scorers Cole Palmer and Nicolas Jackson extend their barren streaks, and the manager laughed that at least today his team didn’t rely on defender Marc Cucurella (their top scorer since mid-December) to get them on level terms:

“Fortunately it was not Cucu again. Very happy for Tyrique, him and Josh Acheampong, both from the academy, we decided to promote them because they are good talents, but they have to work hard.”

Neto praised for sacrifice for the team

Chelsea celebrate Pedro Neto’s late winner. (Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)

The coach was also pleased for Pedro Neto, scorer of the winner, who tends to get shuffled around thanks to his ability to play on both flanks:

“For Pedro’s goal, we all know that Pedro is better in the right side but we have also Noni, we have also Jadon so I try to decide game by game but Pedro is doing well since he arrived here,” Maresca explained after the game.

We’d still like to see more consistent performances from the speedster, but hopefully today marks the start of a good run of goals and assist for the Portugal star.