“The reason is that…” – Enzo Maresca clear about why Chelsea lost to Brighton | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca spoke to Chelsea TV after last night’s loss, and was quick to put the blame for a bad result on the injuries to his strikers.

We accept we would have looked better with Nicolas Jackson in the team, but let’s face it, even he has only scored once in the last 10 games. He was hardly guaranteed to bang in a couple against a really motivated and organised Brighton team.

You can see the coach speaking to Chelsea TV after the game in the clip embedded here:

https://twitte.com/ChelseaFC/status/1890708745983754530

“It’s really disappointing, especially given the moment we’re in. 14 games to go before tonight’s game, fourth in the league, winning tonight we would have gone one point from third, you could make the gap bigger to the rest… but the performance was not good,” the former Leicester coach said.

“So we are very, very upset, very sorry, especially for the fans who were here. But also in general because this is not the performance we need to offer at this stage of the season.”

Striker is Chelsea’s big gap according to Maresca

Nicolas Jackson and Enzo Maresca on the pitch. (Image: Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC)

The manager also identified just what he thought was the weakness in his team which hurt them:

“Before their goal we were playing well… I think we arrived quite well at the edge of the box, and then we struggle in the last third, the reason is that without a proper 9, without a proper threat, we struggle. But in any case, we can do many things better.”

We weren’t good in front of goal, that’s for sure. We ended the game with 0 shots on target, let’s not forget. But conceding 3 reflects terribly on the goalkeeper, defence and midfield too.

The manager is far from free from blame himself either.