Enzo Maresca saw his Chelsea side swat aside Southampton 5-1 but still criticised one of his goalscorers, saying: “He can do much more.”
The Blues are second in the Premier League table behind Liverpool – who dropped points at Newcastle – and Chelsea fans on the south coast regaled their players with chants of ‘we’ve got our Chelsea back’.
But Maresca criticised Noni Madueke for complacency and revealed that he had been dropped for the weekend win over Aston Villa because of the way he trained.
He returned at Southampton as Maresca made seven changes but Maresca had a warning for the winger who scored his first goal since early October.
He said: “Noni can do much more. He can do much more. The moment he starts to score or assist and is happy, he starts to drop a little bit and the reason why he was not playing is because I do not like the way he trained.
“He has to understand that he has to train every day good. He has to be ambitious. He scored one tonight, he has to go for the second one and the third one. He has to give more assists.
“But overall, he is doing great, he is doing fantastic. He is doing even better in terms of numbers. Noni has to understand he has to work more because he can be much, much, much better.”
Madueke both scored and assisted at Southampton as Chelsea had five goalscorers: Madueke, Axel Disasi, Christopher Nkunku, Cole Palmer and substitute Jadon Sancho.
“There are players in behind that are ready. We have four wingers that are all very good,” said Maresca.
“Pedro and Noni for the right side, Jadon and Misha [Mykhailo Mudryk] for the left side and in the moment one of them drops for whatever reason, there is one in behind that is ready.
“Noni is not allowed to drop because Pedro is there and doing fantastic. If Pedro drops then Noni is there.
“This is what they have to understand if we want to be there or be close for something important.”
Maresca was pleased to hear Chelsea fans chanting throughout the game, saying: “It was a very good feeling,especially because you can see they are happy. It’s our target. We work every day to keep them happy.
“Tonight it was a very good feeling, especially the one where they say ‘Chelsea is back’. This is important.
“The results help a lot, and calm down the noise around the club. It’s a good feeling to see the fans happy after the last two years when many things happened. You can see now the feeling from them is good.”