“Said Chelsea were back” – Enzo Maresca digs at fickle critics ahead of huge game today | OneFootball

Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca has had a dig at those who have been fickle towards him and Chelsea ahead of a huge game today.

The Blues face Nottingham Forest this afternoon in what has become a Champions League Play Off game, at least an unofficial one. There are other clubs involved in these Play Offs as well and anything can happens. Chelsea just have to make sure they beat Forest in order to guarantee Champions League qualification. Their goal difference is far superior to that of Aston Villa, so even if they finish on the same points then it should be Chelsea who get through.

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Maresca speaks to the media

The Blues boss has faced the media in the pre-match press conference last week, and some of the quotes have been filtering through each day on the lead up to the big game.

He has already confirmed that he has attackers Marc Guiu and Christopher Nkunku back and available for the squad, which is a huge boost seeing as Nicolas Jackson is still suspended.

Former Chelsea striker Chris Sutton has predicted a bleak outcome to the Forest game that will actually be no good for either team come the end of today.

Enzo Maresca takes pre-Nottingham Forest press conference..

Dig at the critics

Naturally, when you are involved with a big club like Chelsea, you have to accept that taking critique is just all part of the job. Maresca has picked up on the fickleness of his critics this season though.

‘We needed to manage noise at the beginning but I said many times that the noise was more from outside than inside,’ Maresca said on the Chelsea website. ‘Since I joined, inside the club it looked like quite a normal situation.

‘Since I joined the club for me it’s been quite clear the noise was more outside, but inside it’s been quite normal. But it’s all about results for me. You have more noise if you don’t get results, but you have less noise if you get results.

‘When we were second earlier in the season, in December, everyone was happy and said Chelsea were back. Then in February we dropped points and everyone said that Chelsea was not good enough.

‘So in the end it is about results and for sure if we are able to finish in the right way there will be less noise. But then in September if we lose games there will be big noise. But it’s a normal thing at a big club like Chelsea.’