ENZO Maresca told Cole Palmer to “laugh and be happy” after Chelsea ended a three-match losing streak to beat Southampton 4-0 at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night – but without a goal contribution from their star attacker.
Christopher Nkunku opened the scoring for the Blues in the 24th minute and set up Pedro Neto for the second twelve minutes later.
Levi Colwill headed Neto’s free-kick past Aaron Ramsdale a minute before half-time and substitute Tyrique George set up Marc Cucurella for the fourth on 78 minutes.
Chelsea moved two points clear of Manchester City and Newcastle in fourth before those teams play on Wednesday night.
Palmer hasn’t scored in his last seven games.
“He has to continue to work, continue to be happy, continue to laugh the way he does,” Maresca said.
“It is normal to go through a moment where you struggle to score but it doesn’t matter. Just continue and you are going to score many goals.”
Before the game, around 200 Chelsea supporters protested against the running of the club by BlueCo, the consortium headed by Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali.
“The only thing I can say is that in this moment the fans have to trust,” Maresca said. “We’re in the right process and the right direction. Since we started we’ve been top four most games of the season.
“The fans have to trust the players. They are doing a huge effort every day to bring this club to the Champions League.”
Maresca added: “I just said to the players, probably we are in our worst moment in terms of results but we are fourth and one point from third.
“That means a lot and shows how good we have been in the first part of the season. Now it’s a matter to try and finish in the best way.”
