“The priority is…” – Maresca answers big question about his team selections | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca’s press conference today was very team news focused – there’s an illness in the camp which has struck down Reece James, Christopher Nkunku and Cole Palmer.

When you add that to the players already missing, we’re quite depleted in attack for tomorrow night’s game against Copenhagen, although the coach is hoping to welcome all 3 of them back for Sunday’s Premier League game against Arsenal.

It’s tricky for Maresca to know how to balance the two games – one is a knockout tournament, but the league race for the top 5 is so tight that the game against the Gunners feels like a massive 3 points up for grabs. The manager was asked how he would balance the two, and gave a very “managerial” answer:

“The priority is tomorrow. For us, the priority is tomorrow because it is the next game and the most important one. After tomorrow, we will start to think about Arsenal, but for sure we will be focused on tomorrow’s game.”

One game at a time and all that…

Big guns set to return after this week

Noni Madueke in action for Chelsea against Brentford. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

In any case, the good news is that both Nicolas Jackson and Noni Madueke are set to return after the international break, meaning these two fixtures will be the last we play without them.

Pedro Neto has done good work covering up front, but there’s no doubt that Jackson’s unique skillset is one the team lack when he’s not playing, and that Madueke’s eye for goal and willingness to shoot has also been something the team misses:

“[Jackson] could be back, probably after the international break. Him and Noni also. This is good news,” Maresca said.

“Before the international break, we have two games tomorrow and Sunday and then we have international break, we can recover energy, recover players and then go for the last [bit of the season].”