Chelsea are facing Burnley at Turf Moor in this afternoon’s early kick off, and Enzo Maresca has been speaking to the media.
Maresca on Palmer absence after freak injury
Enzo Maresca speaking to the media ahead of Burnley game.
Enzo Maresca speaking to the media ahead of Burnley game.
This week’s press conference was dominated by Cole Palmer talk. The attacker was expected back this week but the coach revealed yesterday that his star player had fracted his little toe at home.
It’s a story so unlikely that some doubted whether it could even be true, but apart from natural suspicion we’ve seen no reason to doubt it. Maresca was asked about before kick off how bad it was to lose him for this game:
“Well, it was also bad to lose him for the previous games,” he pointed out.
“It’s always bad to lose a player like Cole. But soon he will be with us.”
He seems happy and confident about the whole thing, and doesn’t seem at all doubtful that his star man will finally return before long. The team have held it together since Palmer’s last game on the 20th of September, but we all know we’re just treading water without him.
Who knows, maybe the extra week of rest on Cole’s groin issue will actually help in the long run. If we can just get 3 points today, everyone will be delighted and we can take on next week’s double header with more confidence.
You can see Maresca speaking in the clip from TNT Sport embedded here:
"It's always bad to lose a player like Cole"
Enzo Maresca talks team news and looks ahead to Burnley clash with @julesbreach…
📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/Wp0wRx1FAz
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) November 22, 2025
In other Burnley news…
Even with Palmer out, Chelsea have made a number of interesting and unexpected changes to their team, and Maresca defended two of them in another pre-match chat.
Another interesting switch was Alejandro Garnacho dropping out and Jamie Gittens coming in. We speculated about why that change might have been made, here.
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Paul Merson speaking on Sky Sports news.
Cole Palmer's left boot.
Cole Palmer goes off injured against Manchester United.