As Chelsea gear up to face Spurs this weekend, Alan Shearer thinks Enzo Maresca will still be annoyed about one of his players’ recent behaviour.
Thomas Frank’s side are three points ahead and sitting in third, so a win would be massive for the Blues.
But Shearer predicts a draw between Chelsea and Spurs, seeing a trip to the London Stadium as an awkward proposition.
Maresca has plenty of tough calls to make for Tottenham, but one player definitely won’t be in his thoughts, and Shearer thinks he may still be angry over an incident from Chelsea’s midweek win over Wolves.
Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca tells Liam Delap off after red card
Photo by DARREN STAPLES/AFP via Getty Images
Alan Shearer says Liam Delap surely in Enzo Maresca’s bad books
Delap made his return to the side on Wednesday after a long period on the sidelines. It didn’t go as he would have hoped, receiving his marching orders for an elbow to the head of a Wolves defender — just 26 minutes after entering the field of play.
Fans were furious with Delap over the incident, which kept the pressure on the Blues right up until the final whistle.
Shearer is equally baffled by his antics, and reckons Maresca is still angry about it, especially because of the discipline issues that have dominated the early parts of Chelsea’s season.
Appearing on The Rest Is Football, he remarks: “The second challenge is stupid. When you’re on the yellow card and then to go and do that, it’s like, no wonder managers get frustrated and get angry with players when that happens, especially when you’re on a run like they are in terms of the red cards. Yeah.”
After the game, Maresca criticised Delap for not listening to his warnings. He did, however, reveal that Delap apologised to his Chelsea teammates straight away. There’s no doubt he is still annoyed, especially considering the suspension that comes with the red.
🚨 Maresca: “It’s a stupid red card. Delap should avoid that”.
“After the yellow card, I told him four or five times to stay calm. When he is on the pitch, he sometimes plays the game for himself and struggles to see the others around him”, says via @BobbyVincentFL. pic.twitter.com/oYmMYFIMvj
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) October 30, 2025
View Tweet
Maresca’s striker options limited again by Delap’s actions
With Delap set to miss the Spurs game, it puts Maresca back in the same position as before his return, with Joao Pedro, Tyrique George and Marc Guiu.
For a derby of this magnitude it’s unlikely he trusts the youngsters to lead the line, so Pedro feels the obvious choice.
Maresca must choose between Alejandro Garnacho and Jamie Gittens on the left, both on form. He also must pick between Estevao and Pedro Neto on the right.
With so many personnel decisions to make, perhaps he is happy to have one effectively made for him up top.
Somehow, I doubt it.