Ruben Amorim's struggling Man United side suffered a 1-0 defeat to Chelsea in the Premier League on Friday night.
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Ruben Amorim gives a thumbs up to his players. (Image: 2025 Crystal Pix/MB Media)
Enzo Maresca praised Manchester United's aggressive man-to-man marking against Chelsea.
United suffered an 18th defeat of the Premier League season against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, which was their last game before next week's Europa League final against Spurs in Bilbao.
Chelsea claimed a 1-0 victory thanks to a header from Marc Cucurella. Harry Maguire thought he'd opened the scoring for United in the first half, but VAR reviewed his strike and he was marginally offside.
Ruben Amorim named a strong team to face Chelsea, which looked like his starting XI for the Europa League final, but United were unable to avoid another Premier League defeat.
Nonetheless, Maresca was impressed by aspects of United's performance at Stamford Bridge.
"It's very important at this stage of the season to win games," Maresca told journalists. "We also paid attention in the way we won the game. I think tonight we struggled with the ball, because we didn’t expect them to be so aggressive man-to-man. I usually watch five or six games of the other team.
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"And I’ve never seen them so aggressive man-to-man. They surprised us a little bit on that. But I think between first-half and second-half, we created enough chances to deserve to win the game."
Maresca continued: "The reason I was so happy at the end is because United beat City away, drew at home. Drew with Liverpool, drew with Arsenal, so they know how to play against big teams.
"I expected a very tough game and the reason I was so happy because we beat a team that against Arsenal, Liverpool, City, was hard to beat them."
United's players exchanged words after conceding, and Amorim said: "Casemiro and Mason Mount just came off and also Luke Shaw, to protect them for the final, the thinking was the final because again we need to make a choice,. Them fighting for when we suffer a goal is a good thing, so good signs."
Tottenham suffered a 2-0 defeat to Aston Villa in the Premier League on Friday night.
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