Alan Pardew delivered a scathing verdict on Chelsea striker Liam Delap following his red card against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Liam Delap, 22, had a nightmare return for Chelsea in midweek, making his first appearance since August due to a hamstring injury.
Even though the Blues progressed to the Carabao Cup quarter-finals with a 4-3 win over Wolves, Delap’s catastrophic cameo was the major talking point.
The Chelsea striker entered the action on the hour mark to get some much-needed match action but last just 25 minutes because of two needless yellow cards. First, he was booked for pushing Yerson Mosquera in an off-the-ball incident. He was sent off shortly after for an aggressive aerial barge into Emmanuel Agbadou.
Afterwards, Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca publicly ripped into Delap during his post-match interview because he was not pleased with the centre-forward’s actions. Yet again, Maresca’s side suffered a red card this season as the poor discipline continues to grow.
Liam Delap playing for Chelsea against Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Carabao Cup.
Photo by Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images
Alan Pardew criticises Liam Delap after red card
Former Premier League manager Alan Pardew wasn’t impressed by Chelsea frontman Delap for his sending off against Wolves. In particular, he labelled the incident for his second yellow card as “awful”.
Pardew told talkSPORT: “Delap looks like he just came on and lost his head last night. I mean the second incident was awful… That is a really bad situation for him (Enzo Maresca) to have a striker not available and one not quite firing (Joao Pedro)… It’d be interesting to see if Delap gets punished for his indiscipline and everything else that the manager was throwing at him in the press conference.”
Delap’s disciplinary record in the 2024-25 season was really poor for Ipswich Town, even though he wasn’t actually sent off.
The aggression and tenacity of the English centre-forward means that he’s involved in plenty of altercations. If you look at former Chelsea striker Diego Costa, that can definitely be a positive. However, Delap needs to become more streetwise and learn to temper his anger, especially because of VAR in most games.
It has left the Blues in a sticky situation because they won’t be able to count on him against Tottenham.
Marshall Munetsi of Wolverhampton Wanderers confronts Liam Delap of Chelsea during the Carabao Cup tie.
Photo by Marc Atkins/Getty Images
Chelsea’s options against Tottenham without Liam Delap
Even if Delap wasn’t ready to play 90 minutes against Spurs, it would have been a great option to have him in reserve on the bench. Instead, he’ll watch from the stands because of his midweek red card.
It leaves Maresca with a few different options to lead the line as the number nine.
Marc Guiu, who started the previous league game, is a conventional striker option. Alternatively, versatile attacker Joao Pedro has started down the middle multiple times already this season, even if many people prefer him a bit deeper. Tyrique George, who’s got three goals across all competitions this campaign, is another option.
The complete wildcard could be someone like Pedro Neto if Chelsea fancy hitting Spurs with sheer pace.