CHELSEA boss Enzo Maresca said his decision not to go and celebrate with the away end at Craven Cottage was to allow his players to bask in the glory of their stoppage-time London derby win over Fulham that revived the Blues’ Champions League hopes.
After their 2-2 draw with Ipswich Town when Maresca said the “environment” at Stamford Bridge was the blame for his side falling two goals down, it looked like it was going to be another difficult afternoon in the relationship between the head coach and Blues fans when the visitors trailed for 63 minutes to Alex Iwobi’s 20th-minute opener.
But nineteen-year-old Tyrique George gave Chelsea hope with his first league goal seven minutes from time before Pedro Neto spun to finish in the 93rd minute and spark wild scenes on the Blues bench. Maresca was booked for his exuberant celebrations and will serve a one-game touchline ban.
Maresca went straight down the tunnel after the final whistle as his players celebrated with their fans.
Maresca was asked about that afterwards.
“I was very happy, first of all because it’s a nice feeling to win the game at the end but I think it was a moment for the players because they deserve to share that moment with the fans,” Maresca said. “So this is the reason why I left the pitch immediately and then when we scored the second one I celebrated and this is the reason why they gave me a yellow card.
“But for sure I think it was a nice moment for the players and for the fans to share that moment. It’s important and I said already many times, the players need to feel the support.”
With Arsenal looking favourites to finish second to Liverpool, there are realistically five teams fighting for the other three Champions League spots.
“Personally, the goal from Pedro doesn’t change my view from the season,” Maresca said. “I said three or four days ago, and I will repeat, Chelsea in the last two years has never been in a Champions League spot and this season we spent the whole season there. So [the] win doesn’t change my view.
“It’s already a good season and can become very good if we finish in a Champions League spot, no doubt. But for sure [it] was an important win because first of all it’s a derby, second it gives us the chance to be there and probably was the most difficult win and the reason why is because [Chelsea’s rivals] all played [on Saturday], so for us it was a must-win game. And I think after we conceded the goal is the reason why we struggled a bit more because for the players it became more difficult and second half we were much better.”
Maresca added: “It was a fantastic goal from Pedro, from Tyrique but I think all the team today was very good, Trevoh [Chalobah] was good, Levi [Colwill] was good, the one in the middle, Moi [Caicedo], Enzo [Fernandez], Cole [Palmer] was better, so happy for all of them.
“Very happy for Tyrique, him and Josh Acheampong, both from the academy, we decided to promote them because they are good talent, they have to work hard. Pedro’s goal, we all know that Pedro is better in the right side but we have also Noni [Madueke], we have also Jadon [Sancho] so I try to decide game by game but Pedro is doing well since he arrived here.”
Captain Reece James played the first 45 minutes but his replacement, Malo Gusto, limped off a minute from time with Tosin Adarabioyo coming on.
Maresca said: “Very happy because [James] played 90 minutes two days ago and played again 45 so for us as a team it’s an important moment because we can start to think about him every three days. And this is fantastic for us because he’s our captain, he’s a main player, fantastic player, so it’s good news.
“Unfortunately it’s not a good one [for Gusto], a muscle problem and you can see against Ipswich, second half he was inside, changed the game, today he was inside, changed the game, how important is Malo for us and unfortunately it looks like a muscle injury.”
Cottagers boss Marco Silva acknowledged his side dropped off after the break, but felt they didn’t deserve to lose.
“We were not able to play the second half very well, like we did the first,” Silva said.
“We did it well first half, the quality, the capacity to keep the ball and to find the right moments to do it.
“Unfortunately for us, we wanted to start the second half in the same way and were not able to connect some passes. Our build-up was not at the same level.
“They started to play in our half. I really believe the result is very harsh for us but the second half was not our level and we lost the game.”
Chelsea host Everton on Saturday at 12.30pm.
Fulham travel to Southampton for a 3pm kick-off.
