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Chelsea moved within four points of Liverpool with victory over Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday
“Unfortunately he felt something in his hamstring in the last minutes of the first-half,” Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca said afterwards. “Now, he’s walking without any pain. It was a small thing. Since we started, I don’t like to lose players for five, six, seven games in a row. Even if Romeo was playing fantastic, we tried to change because he had a problem.”
Lavia has struggled with injury since his move from Southampton in the summer of 2023 and the Blues will hope the issue will only prove to be a small one, as they look to keep the pressure on Liverpool with their next three Premier League games against Brentford, Everton and Fulham. Despite the Blues now sitting above both Arsenal and Manchester City, Maresca was quick to play down any talk of his side being title challengers.
“After the game, my message to the players was to be focused,” Maresca said. “To be focused in the day-by-day, in our session, in the next game on Thursday then Sunday, because if you start to think in two games, three games or in four games where we are? It’s completely wrong. The main focus has to be enjoy the day off, with family or friends, but when they come back go again 100 per cent, train well, go for the game and no more than that. We are happy that our fans are happy. They can dream, they can think everything because on the outside it is quite clear, also inside, the reality is that I said many times for me we are not ready to be there, but the important thing is we improve day by day.”
“This for sure is an important win. First of all for the way that it arrives because to come into this stadium, against this team and to concede two goals but to continue with the same plan on the ball, off the ball, it show how the players are in this moment mentally strong. This is important. Since we start, we are trying to work the way we want to play on and off the ball, but also we are trying to work in terms of mentality and togetherness. To come into this season to think you are going to win or compete without suffer or without some bad moments is impossible. We were ready for that. It is probably too much after 15 minutes to give away two goals but it is the perfect win probably because of this.”
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