“The manager has faith in me” – Chelsea youngster feels supported, but Maresca could do more | OneFootball

We were happy in general to see Enzo Maresca rotate his Chelsea team for the win over ES Tunis on Tuesday night.

It wasn’t just a question of giving the first choice players a break either – it was also about finally getting to see some of the squad players in action. We’ve been banging the drum for Josh Acheampong for a long time, and the full back got his first start of the tournament against the Tunisians.

Full back Acheampong delighted to have been given a chance

Tosin Adarabioyo, Marc Guiu, Tyrique George, and Josh Acheampong vs ES Tunis

We suspect he will be back to the bench for the second round game against Benfica on Friday, despite a great showing this week. But speaking to the club’s official website, Acheampong showed he was just happy to have been given a chance:

“Benfica are a really big club, but every game in this competition is hard. So while we need to focus on the opponent, the most important thing is that we focus on ourselves,” the academy product said.

“It [the tournament] is really exciting. We’re into the knockouts now and every single game is important. We just have to keep winning. It’s important the manager has faith in me. It means I get to play – and I’m very happy to have played [against ES Tunis].”

Acheampong deserves promotion to second choice right back

Acheampong has looked so much better than right back rival Malo Gusto when given chances in the last few months. We really hope that that leads to him getting more chances in this tournament and beyond. It’s getting silly how often the Frenchman is preferred despite basically a very poor season all told.

Maresca has done a great job of introducing Josh to first team action – now when is he going to trust him?

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