Enzo Maresca is still trying to do his best to deny that Chelsea are in the title race, but clearly what he’s saying behind the scenes is a little different.
According to one of his star players and leaders in the dressing room, the Blues wanted to “send a message” to other teams in the league by taking on the first placed team and going toe to toe.
James says Chelsea dominated with ten men against Arsenal
Reece James battles in midfield,
Reece James battles in midfield, (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
Reece James was the obvious choice to speak to the TV cameras after a heroic performance, and he did just that with a chat to Chelsea TV you can read here.
“Our objective is always to win. This is Chelsea Football Club, the standards here are high. I think the result and the performance today speak for themselves and send a message to the other teams in the league,” the captain said.
“We dominated the whole game in every area throughout, with 11 men and 10 men. I think that was a big statement on where we are and what we’re fighting for. We’ve come a long way and we’re building on result after result, and I think we showed that today.
“So I’m proud of the boys. It was electric here at Stamford Bridge today and we take a point and move forward.”
That is exactly the sort of attitude we want, and the sort of attitude we’ve been missing in the last few years where the excuses about “young players” have let us off the hook too many times after bad results.
In other news…
A half time tweak in the game saw Estevao taken off for Alejandro Garnacho. That shows where Maresca’s thinking is at on the pair of them right now.
Chelsea’s red card in this game shown to Moises Caicedo was their 6th of the season, which is just crazy given it came before the end of November. This is going to continue being a talking point for Enzo Maresca until we can recover our record a little.
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Chelsea group generic celebrate with Trevoh Chalobah. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
Reece James speaks to Sky Sports.
Reece James battles in midfield,