ENZO Maresca denied there were any problems with Cole Palmer’s form after the England international’s ineffectual display in Chelsea’s 3-0 defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion at the Amex Stadium on Friday night.
Kaoru Mitoma opened the scoring before Yankuba Minteh made it 2-0 at the break and then added his second in the second have as Brighton beat the Blues for the second time in six days after knocking them out of the FA Cup fourth round.
Palmer was a peripheral figure and hasn’t scored in his last five games.
“Football is a team, it’s not tennis,” Maresca said. “It’s not only Cole Palmer. We are all the same in this moment. We feel upset and we feel especially very sorry for the fans that were here. But in general for our fans because we cannot offer this kind of performance with thirteen games to go.”
Chelsea have won only two of their last nine league games and their supporters made their displeasure known on Friday night.
“The reaction is that I think it is everywhere the same in terms of when you win games, the fans are happy and when you don’t win games, the fans are upset,” Maresca said. “In this moment, they are completely right to be upset. In this moment of the season, with the chance we have of bringing this club to where this club has to be. The desire we showed was not enough.
“In terms of the way we played on the ball, I do not think it was a worse performance [than the 2-1 defeat in the FA Cup]. Result, yes, it was worse than the last one, no doubt. I think we arrived quite well in the last third and then we struggled to create chances. Something up until two or three weeks ago we were doing very well – creating chances, many chances every game.
“In this moment, the bad feeling is that we look that easily we can concede chances and we struggle to create chances. This is the feeling at the moment. The reason why, there are many reasons why. Because of the number nine and the injuries, it is part of that, but in this moment it is like this, but we have thirteen games to go and we have to finish in the best way.”
Maresca’s problems have been added to by Noni Madueke’s injury, though there was better news on Malo Gusto.
Maresca said:“Malo is okay. Noni, unfortunately it is a hamstring problem, so he will be out for a while.”
