ENZO Maresca has insisted he is not concerned about Cole Palmer – but admitted Chelsea rely too much on the England midfielder.
Palmer has gone six games without a goal and thirteen without an assist. That is after 26 goals and thirteen assists in 2023-24.
The Blues have won only two of their last ten Premier League games and have lost three of their last four ahead of the visit of basement side Southampton to Stamford Bridge on Tuesday night.
“No. I am always concerned about general performance,” Maresca said when asked about Palmer. “I am not concerned about Cole because Cole is a human being and he can have some moments during a season where he struggles a little bit more.
“The problem with Cole is that we rely on Cole for everything and I said since we started that we need to rely on the team. We need top players like Cole but we are not worried about him at all.
“He needs to continue the way he is working. The other day he had a great chance but over all the performance from him, as I said, every game we expect a goal or assist from him so it is difficult.
“He is a human being. At this moment his performances probably reflects the team performances that we struggle to score goals so we need to be a little more clinical when we get the chances.”
Saints have only nine points from 26 games after just two wins all season, but Maresca isn’t banking on the visitors offering his side a way back to winning ways.
He said: “I don’t trust games like this, they can be tricky games. If you watch the game against Manchester United away they were winning 1-0 until the last five minutes. It’s a tricky one and from now on, every game, every team is playing for something so they are all going to be tough.
“When you are here at Chelsea, there isn’t a game where we aren’t preparing to win. Our duty is to prepare every game to win. From now on we have twelve games to go and it is no doubt that all twelve are must-win for us.”
Meanwhile, Maresca has backed goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen after his mistake handed Aston Villa a 2-1 win at Villa Park.
“He is okay. He feels a little bit sad or upset because he recognises he made a mistake but overall he is okay,” Maresca said.
“If we need to change a player every time they made a mistake then we would need to change many players game by game. Nothing has changed.”
Maresca also confirmed defender Trevoh Chalobah has been sidelined for a week to ten days.
