Enzo Maresca’s favoured back 4 is pretty established at this point, and we expected to see them today.
However instead the coach has dropped Wesley Fofana, breaking up his really successful partnership with Trevoh Chalobah. Speaking to the media ahead of the game, the Chelsea manager explained the decision.
Maresca explains line-up decision as rotation
Enzo Maresca smiles ahead of Aston Villa clash.
Enzo Maresca smiles ahead of Aston Villa clash.
“We have another game in 72 hours so we need to manage Wes. He’s an important player for us. We have so many games that for sure all of them are going to play games.”
We understand the logic, we really do. But this is just the sort of decision which is seen as unnecessarily complicating things. There are lots of changes which Maresca simply has no choice over. If he were to play Fofana today, he wouldn’t be able to play him in midweek, that’s understood.
But in this case, Fofana hasn’t played for a week and COULD play today. Villa are 7 points above us and could go ten clear with a win. This is a huge game, and we should be playing our strongest team, not worrying about Bournemouth on Tuesday already. Maresca should let that team look after itself when the time comes and think game by game, as he always claims to be doing.
This is just the sort of decision that will get criticised for over-tinkering if Chelsea’s back line look dodgy.
In other news…
Enzo Maresca admitted ahead of today’s game that he was frustrated that people were still talking about his comments from a couple of weeks ago relating to a lack of support within the club.
Maresca was also asked about Chelsea’s record against the top teams in the league and admitted there was room for improvement in that area as they prepare to take on an in-form Villa team who have surged ahead of them in the table.
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