Maresca sends warning to Nicolas Jackson after red card and admits Chelsea ‘don’t have many options’ up top | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca warned Nicolas Jackson that he cannot make the same mistake again after being sent off in Chelsea’s defeat to Newcastle.

Jackson was shown a red card for elbowing Sven Botman and will now miss the rest of the season through suspension as Chelsea look to secure Champions League qualification.

And the Blues boss insists Jackson understands the mistake he made.

“I think Nico is intelligent enough to recognise that there has been an error, that there has been a mistake, and is sorry about this,” he said.

Maresca also says Jackson must learn from the incident, however.

He added: “For me, in this case, it’s not about the age because no matter your age, if you make a mistake it’s okay because all of us make mistakes, but if you make the same mistake again, probably it’s not the best thing.

“I think it’s the first red card this season for us, unfortunately it was for Nico, then in terms of yellow cards probably it’s something serious, it’s something that during the summer, because now we have no time, we need to sit and review things and to see the reason why for these yellow cards, the amount of them we can avoid and try to improve for next season.

“It’s normal after a red card that the light is on Nico but overall it’s something that if you can avoid, it’s good to avoid.”

Jackson’s suspension means Maresca has a dilemma up front ahead of the game against Manchester United, with Christopher Nkunku having been sidelined with an injury of late and Marc Guiu not yet fit enough to start.

“We are working on that,” Maresca said when asked about his options for replacing Jackson. “We don’t have many options.

“Unfortunately, Marc Guiu is still injured. He has started to train with us but he’s not ready to play from the start and we are working on different options for Friday night.”