Enzo Maresca has just faced the media ahead of Chelsea’s Premier League trip to Crystal Palace on Saturday afternoon.
The Blues head coach has just addressed the press where he answered a number of questions on various different topics. You can read the full transcript below…
Reece is back. Romeo is very close, he has started to work with us. For the rest, there is not any update. Kiernan is still out. Unfortunately Wes will be out for a very long time. Benoit will be out until at least February. So the only two big updates are on Wes Fofana and Benoit but both are going to be out for a very long time.”
Do either require surgery?
Not at the moment. For sure, not Benoit. For Wes, not at the moment.”
Does that affect your thinking in terms of this transfer window?
We’ll see, now the focus is on tomorrow’s game, that is an important game like the rest, so the focus is just about tomorrow, but for sure these two players they’re going to be out for a long time, so we’ll see.”
And Reece James, how close is he to getting some minutes again?
“He’s back, the last game against Ipswich he was with us just to be with us on the squad; the plan was not to give him any minutes. Tomorrow is different, we can give him minutes, so hopefully we all know how important this game is for us, so hopefully he can get minutes very soon.”
You said consistently that you’re not in the title race, were you unfortunately proven right over Christmas?
“Yeah, but I didn’t need to wait to lose a game to understand that, this is the reason why, and I always said the same, I would like to tell you.
What do you put this dip in form down to and how concerned are you by it?
“I’m always concerned even when we win games, but I don’t think it’s bad form, I think it’s just analyse game by game, against Fulham we were winning 1-0 until 82-83 minutes and then we conceded two goals. Ipswich probably was not our day in terms of, I don’t know how many chances we created, clear chances, but probably their desire not to concede and to win the game was higher than us.”
And you are very much in the race for the top four, how important is it that you don’t slip up again this weekend?
“Not only this weekend, the next 19 games. it’s important that we’re going to be there, I said already many times I don’t think one of us in this room expects us to be where we are now at the beginning of the season. That means that the team is doing very well, but now we have the second part ahead of us.
Those two disappointing results, have they affected the mood around here, morale?
“No, absolutely, we don’t like to lose games. We don’t like to drop points, but it’s not going to affect our journey because we all know, we are aware that during the season you are going to lose games.
Months ago.”