Enzo Maresca was full of praise for his players following Sunday’s 3-0 victory over Aston Villa, with goalscorers Cole Palmer, Nicolas Jackson and Enzo Fernandez among those impressing our head coach.
It was arguably one of our most accomplished performances of the season so far, as the Blues brushed aside a fellow top-four hopeful with a dominant showing from start to finish.
Several of the players who featured in that victory earned praise for their roles from Maresca, including the scorer of our third and final goal Palmer, who curled a perfect shot into the top corner late on against Villa, having already got the assist for Fernandez's goal just before half-time.
The Italian believes Cole, just like the team-mate who came off the bench to replace him shortly after his goal, are rare talents, with the creativity and flair that keeps drawing supporters to Stamford Bridge and getting them off their seats.
'Cole Palmer and Joao Felix are the reason why people pay for tickets. It is to watch that kind of player that they come,' said Maresca.
'Cole Palmer can see things, like Joao, that the rest, they cannot see. That does not mean the rest are not good, but those two are different from the rest.'
Our other scorers against Villa also received praise from Maresca, but not necessarily for their goals, starting with striker Jackson again pleasing his boss with his hard work off the ball as much as his contribution to our attacking threat.
'Jackson scored a goal but he did a fantastic job,' continued Enzo. 'He was pressing the keeper and the right central defender, he was running for two players, and this is what we need.'
It was a similar case for Fernandez, who captained the side against Villa. He put us 2-0 up going into the break with a brilliant strike from the edge of the box, but it was the way he got into dangerous positions inside the opposition penalty box which impressed Maresca most, even if his fellow Blues weren't able to take advantage of them.
The head coach also pointed out the importance of our full-backs to the win, as Marc Cucurella and Moises Caicedo repeatedly stepped in to win back possession quickly high up the pitch, starting the moves for our first two goals.
'Enzo did fantastic today once again, Moi again too, but in yesterday’s game it was very difficult to find one of them who was not good. I think we were all good and this is important.
'Enzo was in the right position more times. He was inside the box and we didn’t connect with him, then in the action that we scored we connected with him, but it’s very difficult to score goals from outside the box.
'Almost all goals happen inside the box, so we need the two wingers, the two attacking midfielders, the No9, inside the box. Players inside the box is the only way to try to score goals.
'It is also important to recover the ball. The first goal we scored was because Marc Cucurella was in the right position to win the ball back, and then we scored a goal.'