Maresca explains his “different decision” of why he dropped world class captain | OneFootball

Chelsea are about to head out to crown an exciting weekend in the Premier League with a Super Sunday matchup against Arsenal, and their coach Enzo Maresca has been speaking to the Sky Sports cameras ahead of kick off.

There were a few important items on the agenda – first up, the dropping of Reece James. The captain has been ever present in the league team since returning from injury after the last international break, but today is dropped to the bench, with Marc Cucurella coming in to replace him.

“Reece is fit and we are happy with him. Since he came back he has played all of the Premier League games and today we took a different decision,” Maresca said when asked to explain his decision.

Of course, that doesn’t give away much. But it seems likely that the decision to use Cucurella on the left is in order to combat Arsenal’s in form key man, Bukayo Saka. Maresca isn’t saying that out loud, but it seems logical to us.

Enzo Maresca with Cole Palmer and Joao Felix. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)

Chelsea’s talisman is back – but so is Arsenal’s

The other big call is the return of Cole Palmer. Maresca has insisted he is “ok for sure” and that the attacker is “100% [fit].”

“He trained with us on Friday,” the manager said of his key attacker, who has been a doubt all week after getting a nasty slash across the knee from Lisandro Martinez a week ago. With Palmer back, the gaffer is confident, but cautious:

“We have many things we need to do better and I’ve said many times we need to learn to play a different kind of game against teams that try to press and wait for us, but for sure I’m also very happy with us. Today will be a tough game.”