Maresca on Chelsea's comfortable 3-0 win over Villa and climbing to third
01/12/2024
Stamford Bridge, London, UK
01/12/2024
Stamford Bridge, London, UK
Category
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SportsTranscript
00:00Right, who wants to get us underway? Nizar?
00:02Hi Nizar, where do you rank that in sort of successes during the reign? It was an amazing performance today.
00:07Yeah, it was a very good performance on the ball and off the ball. I think we competed quite well.
00:14And I think we are doing that since we started. Sometimes better, sometimes worse.
00:22But I said many times, I think we are in the right direction.
00:27Was this a step forward even for Camilla Wings because it felt very dominant and like everything was working for you today?
00:36To be honest, I don't know. I said even after Leicester game, no matter who is the other team,
00:42it's important to try to play in the way we want to play on the ball and off the ball.
00:46And when we do this and we get three points, we are for sure happy.
00:50But I think the performance was very good on the ball.
00:55We played in the way we prepared the game because Villa is a very difficult team.
00:59They are top defensively. It's not easy to find space.
01:02They don't jump to the... They don't press.
01:05They just wait. So you have to be patient.
01:09If you force, you lose the ball, you concede. And off the ball, we were, again, very aggressive.
01:15We were pressing. Nicolas Jackson scored a goal, but he did a fantastic job.
01:18He was pressing the keeper and the right centre defender.
01:21He was running for two players. And this is what we need.
01:39No, yeah, I said we are always looking for balance on the ball and off the ball.
01:46Enzo did fantastic today once again.
01:48Moy again. But today's game, I think it's very difficult to find one of them that was not good.
01:55I think we were all good and this is important.
02:10No, no, absolutely. I'm not... I said many times I'm not agree with that.
02:13I think we are not ready to compete with Liverpool, Arsenal and City for many reasons.
02:22Because we win today, I'm not going to change my idea.
02:26We are not ready for that.
02:29But the good thing is that we are improving and hopefully very soon we can be there.
02:44No, it was a very good game for many reasons.
02:49One of the reasons was because on the other side, there was a team that is fantastic.
02:56I said I consider Emery a top manager. He wins trophies everywhere.
03:02And he's doing something fantastic at Villa.
03:05But also we were there, we prepared the game and we deserved to win.
03:14Unfortunately, it's bad news. It was a hamstring problem.
03:18That these kind of things at least require three, four, five weeks.
03:23That in this moment means we lose 10 games, 12 games.
03:26And in the way he was playing, it's a big loss for us.
03:31But we have more players and we try to find a solution.
03:34How big a blow is that going to be because of the partnership he's had with you today?
03:39It's a big loss. It's a big loss because he's doing fantastic.
03:44But it's normal when you play this amount of games.
03:49Unfortunately, it was his first injury this season.
03:56But we're going to find a solution.
03:59Just on Enzo Fernandez, you scored against Leicester, scored again here.
04:04Is there more of an emphasis on trying to get him into those positions?
04:10Exactly. And more times he was in the right position.
04:13He was inside the box. We didn't contact with him.
04:17In the action that we scored, we contacted with him.
04:20But he has to be... It's very difficult to see goal from outside the box.
04:26Almost all the goals happen inside the box.
04:28So we need the two wingers, the two attacking midfielders, the number nine inside the box.
04:32We need two players inside the box.
04:37It's the only way to try to score goals.
04:39And also it's important, the other one, that they are at the edge, immediately recover the ball.
04:44The first goal we score is because Marco Correia is in the right position.
04:48Win the ball back and we score the goal.
04:50Question from the third row.
04:52Just a question around a player that was back in the squad today, Malo Gusto.
04:56What do you think of him and his improvement so far this season?
04:59Malo is doing fantastic.
05:01I said many times that one of the reasons why we are where we are in this moment is because of Malo.
05:09He helps us a lot in terms of process.
05:12With us, he plays full-back higher, full-back inside, full-back in the pocket.
05:17He's playing three, four positions.
05:18The good thing is that he's happy because he's learning also different things.
05:22We'll do two more. The second row and just down here.
05:26Yep. On the left.
05:30I just wanted to ask what you thought of Cole Palmer's performance.
05:33Obviously, he got thrown in, but without the ball, like you said about Jackson,
05:37just how good he was in stopping, whether he was playing out the path?
05:41Yeah, Cole Palmer, Joao Felix is the reason why people pay tickets.
05:47It's to see that, to watch that kind of player.
05:51And Cole Palmer, he can see things like Joao that the rest, they cannot see.
05:58It doesn't mean that the rest, they are no good, but they are different from the rest.
06:05You said Chelsea are not quite there yet to be able to compete.
06:09They're a bit tight, as you mentioned.
06:12But you're hopeful that you can get there soon.
06:15What is it you want to see still to narrow that gap?
06:20For sure, we need to improve many things.
06:22We can attack better, we can defend better.
06:25But what we need for me is you have to live moments to get better.
06:34I don't know if it's clear in English, but you have to live moments to get better.
06:38These kind of players, some of them in their life, in their experience,
06:42they play probably one final for any title.
06:45Probably last year, Carabao Cup has been the most important game they played.
06:49So you need to live moments to get better.
06:52And when we start to get that moments, probably we get better and we can compete.
06:57Arsenal player, Liverpool player, City player, they all live finals, compete for titles.
07:05So we're going to be there soon.
07:08But this is one of the reasons why we are still far and not ready to compete with those clubs.
07:13Great, thanks everyone.