Trevoh Chalobah of Chelsea celebrates after scoring his teams first goal with Wesley Fofana and Reece James of Chelsea during the Premier League match between Chelsea and Arsenal at Stamford Bridge on November 30, 2025 in London, England.placeholder image
Trevoh Chalobah of Chelsea celebrates after scoring his teams first goal with Wesley Fofana and Reece James of Chelsea during the Premier League match between Chelsea and Arsenal at Stamford Bridge on November 30, 2025 in London, England. | Getty Images
Enzo Maresca is keen to manage one Chelsea star’s minutes despite a hugely-impressive performance against Arsenal
Chelsea are facing a busy period in December with eight games in 27 days for Enzo Maresca’s side.
They produced an impressive performance on Sunday afternoon to hold Arsenal to a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge, despite playing more than half the game with 10 men after Moises Caicedo was sent off in the first half.
Chelsea still took the lead but were pegged back by the league leaders, who remain six points clear of the Blues who are third after Manchester City beat Leeds United on Saturday afternoon.
The Blues take on their old rivals in midweek as part of a busy period of Premier League action. Leeds were 2-0 down to City before getting back to 2-2 only for Phil Foden to win the game for the hosts in stoppage time.
After their trip to Elland Road, Chelsea are on the road to Bournemouth on Saturday. They return to Champions League action away to Atalanta on Tuesday, December 9.
Reece James earned plaudits for his performance in the draw against Arsenal, with London World handing him a 9/10 rating for his display and wrote: “Phenomenal. This was Reece James at his very best. Moving into a defensive midfield position, the captain was here, there and everywhere. A calming presence and constantly vocal to organise his side. Without him, fraying Blues tempers may have been out of control.”
The right-back’s biggest issue throughout his career has been consistent injury problems. And Maresca is keen to manage the Chelsea man’s minutes, hinting that he might not start at Elland Road on Wednesday.
Maresca said: “Reece, now, his performance has been fantastic, top. Now, we have a game on Wednesday. For him, very good. We need to manage him, we need to control him, we need to control a little bit his situation. But he was very good tonight.”
Maresca does have plenty of options to replace James with Malo Gusto and Andrey Santos both available if they wanted to step up and give their manager something to think about moving forward.
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