Enzo Maresca will be shuffling his pack again as Aston Villa visit
Enzo Maresca will be shuffling his pack again as Aston Villa visit
Enzo Maresca, the Chelsea manager, has confirmed that he'll be spreading the minutes of matches in the coming days and weeks around his deep squad, as the Blues prepare to welcome Aston Villa to Stamford Bridge on Sunday (1:30pm kick off).
Chelsea returned to England with three more points in the Europa Conference League on Thursday night, after they eased past Heidenheim 2-0 thanks to goals from Christopher Nkunku and Mykhailo Mudryk. They're straight back into action in the Premier League on Sunday against a Villa side who have had 24 hours extra by way of recovery and preparation.
That said, Chelsea's European squad this year - they're overwhelming favourites to win the competition Villa reached the semi-finals of last year - has omitted a number of senior players out in order to ensure they rest appropriately between games; Cole Palmer, Romeo Lavia and Wesley Fofana were left out of the squad at the beginning of the season.
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Maresca, though, has intimated that he'll be making changes; Chelsea play nine matches in December, beginning with Villa, and so he'll be selecting his squad appropriately from game to game to maintain their wellbeing and fitness levels as much as possible.
"I think it is difficult to find players that tonight did not play well. All of them did very good. This is what we need," he told Football.London in Germany, after watching his side claim another victory in the Conference League.
"We need all of them taking the chances when they get them. We have 24 or 25 players, good players who all deserve to play and are working fantastic. We are going to share minutes in the next games because we have so many games so it is the normal thing to do."
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