Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca on the injury to Noni Madueke keeping him out a few weeks, The impact Unai Emery on Aston Villa and the recent poor form
Cobham, London, UK
Cobham, London, UK
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00:00Right, good morning and welcome to our Matchday Minus One press conference ahead of tomorrow's
00:20Premier League game against Aston Villa.
00:22We will take the usual format today and begin with the broadcast section, starting with
00:27Gary Cottrell and Sky Sports News.
00:30Can I get the latest team news, injury news, I guess with the updates at Leverkusen?
00:38Yeah, fortunately we don't have any update in terms of the ones that we have injury are
00:46the same, we don't have any more additional injuries, so Noni probably will be out until
00:56the international break probably and the rest is Nico out, Wes out, Benoit out, Romeo out,
01:06Mark Diu out.
01:07So with Noni it's four games, four Premier League games as I said, no more than that,
01:12you're hopeful he'll be back after the international break?
01:18Probably after the international break we can have back most of the injury, almost all
01:22of them, or all of them, that for us can be a big boost.
01:28So Aston Villa, Chelsea's record at Villa Park is actually in the Premier League, it's
01:35pretty good historically, I think they've only won more games away from home at Southampton
01:40and Tottenham, and obviously Villa themselves would like to be in the Champions League mix
01:45next season, so tell us about Villa and the kind of opposition you're expecting?
01:49They are, anyway, since the new project with Emery they are doing fantastic, this season
01:58you can see even in the Champions League they finished first eight, it's an unbelievable
02:03achievement for them, and they are there fighting to finish top four also this season, so the
02:12team is very good, they know clearly the way they want to play on the ball and off the
02:17ball, and the manager is probably one of the best managers.
02:21You spoke there about Aston Villa's hopes, what are your hopes for Chelsea now for the
02:27remainder of the season, what do you hope to achieve between now and the end of the
02:31season?
02:32We said many times, I think we spent almost our season top four, now we have just 13 games
02:41to go, so for sure now the target for us is to finish top four, to try to finish in the
02:46best way, we're going to try to do our best to achieve that, knowing that probably the
02:54difficult moment that we have now is probably one of the reasons why, and the most important
03:02reason why is because of the injury situation.
03:05We have five, six players that unfortunately for us they are significant players, that
03:10they are out, I was watching two days ago the first game against Villa and unfortunately
03:16we have from that game five players probably that they are out, Wes, Noni, Nico, Romeo,
03:23so the team changed completely and it's something that this season happened almost with many
03:30clubs, Arsenal had injury, City had injury, and we're going to try our best to win games
03:38also with the amount of injury we have.
03:41You say you aim to finish in the top four, you sit there looking like you believe that
03:45you can finish in the top four, you seem quite optimistic.
03:48But I've been always clear since day one, I'm not here to, and I said already this a
03:58few times, I'm not here to survive, I'm here to win games, I'm here to bring this club
04:05to fight for titles, and I said this already many times, the problem is that when you win
04:13games you look humble, and when you don't win games you look like lack of ambition.
04:19Since day one I joined this club and my intention is to win games, to win titles, and to bring
04:25this club where this club deserves to be.
04:28I said this since day one and if you review all my press conferences I always repeat the
04:34same, the problem is as I said when you win you look humble, when you don't win you look
04:39like lack of ambition.
04:41I'm ambitious, the club is ambitious, we have the same manager, same players, and same sport
04:49director, same owners than two months ago when we were second in the league.
04:54So nothing changed, the only thing changed is that unfortunately we are dealing with
04:58many injuries and this affects a little bit the level of the team.
05:17It's nice, I really appreciate to be honest the relation with the club since we started
05:23in a better moment in terms of results and in a worse moment in terms of results now.
05:29They always support me, the sport director, the owner, all the club to be honest.
05:54I don't know to be honest, I said to him if you want to play again you have to do the
06:00same error than mine, that's why.
06:02I don't know, it's his choice probably, it's a question for him, I don't know.
06:24No I guess City was not a game plan at all, I guess Brighton probably was the dynamic
06:31of the game because we spent almost our game in the opposite side, unfortunately without
06:39creating many chances.
06:41But when you play there the defensive line is higher because you are playing in the opposite
06:45side and something you can concede in behind.
06:54Recently in Chelsea games though the winning of enough duels, winning second balls has
06:59been a bit more of an issue, how do you solve this with the current fit players that you
07:03have because I feel like that physicality of winning those second balls is key to how
07:07you want to play.
07:08Absolutely, it's an important part.
07:10As I said two minutes ago, reviewing the first game we played against them, we said many
07:16times with probably more physically players like Wes, Romeo, even Nico that we said many
07:24times that off the ball is working very hard and this is the reason why probably in this
07:30moment we struggle a little bit in terms of results.
07:34As I said for us it's a big boost because after the international break probably we
07:39have all of them but before the international break we have games to play, games to win
07:45and we're going to try to win the games.
07:47You've mentioned numerous times that sometimes the players like Nico and Noni, even if they're
07:52frustrating when they're playing, when they're not playing you see how much they impact the
07:56team.
07:57Now the Noni injury, we've seen George hang on, he impacted as a sub, he was at the back
08:01post, he was running in behind.
08:03Is he actually ready?
08:04Of course you kind of have to use him at the moment but is he ready to play Premier League
08:08games?
08:10For sure he's a young one, he's probably not ready 100% but because of the amount of injury
08:17we have we need to use the ones that we have.
08:20Ty is a young profile, he's doing well and because in some moments we don't have also
08:27different options we need to give him a chance and hopefully we can give him more chances
08:32and he can help us.
08:39What's the mood been like in training this week?
08:42You talked about how you've been reaching the top four but do the players still believe
08:47it?
08:48Because the mood, judging by their performance for Taco Malacosto, said after the Brighton
08:54game that they wanted him more than Chelsea.
08:56It just sort of seems to be and the players turn around and challenge during games.
09:00Is the team spirit still as strong as it used to be?
09:04The team spirit for sure in this moment has to be upset in terms of they have to be upset,
09:13we are upset because we are not happy with the results we have in this moment.
09:19We are all aware that we are in a club where I said at the beginning we are not here to
09:27survive, we are here to try to help this club to win games, to come back to win titles and
09:32fight for that.
09:33And the team spirit, I try to convince the players as I said before that they are the
09:38same players that for 19-20 games they were top four, second, second, second for most
09:44part of the season.
09:46And now it's a bad run, we need to deal with that, we need to embrace that and for sure
09:51after this moment they are going to be better players and better professionals.
09:57On Tuesday night there has been talk that there is going to be some kind of fan protest
10:05at the end of the game, what is your feeling about the fans perhaps sort of voting with
10:10their voices and showing some kind of protest about the way the club is being run?
10:15The only thing I can say is that every time the fans have been behind us we really appreciate
10:23because we are sure that with the fans in behind we can achieve soon our target.
10:28We have I think 13 games to go until the end, seven of them at home and I think that winning
10:36the seven at home can be enough to finish top four.
10:40So it's a motivation for them, it's a motivation for us and it's something that after the game
10:48inside the changing room we mentioned many times, especially after the game that we played
10:53at home, we mentioned many times that when you can hear the fans pushing in behind it's
10:58a nice feeling and also I think the last two Premier League games at home they were Wolves
11:05and West Ham, both we won and especially the West Ham one that we were one nil down with
11:09them in behind, at the end we have been able to win the game.
11:14So we appreciate the fans in behind us and we ask them to be with us until the end because
11:21for sure at the end we are going to finish very happy all of us.
11:24Thank you Simon. Rob?
11:28Last season Mo Augusto was probably one of the outstanding players for Chelsea and he
11:34seemed like a real sign that the recruitment policy was working, he came over as a team
11:38manager, wasn't really very well known at all over here and he really improved over
11:44the season, he doesn't seem to have quite kicked on from there this season, he hasn't
11:50started much recently, I wonder what your experience of working with him and his progress
11:57has been this season?
11:59I'm very happy with Malo to be honest, I think he's doing well with us but in this moment
12:08to judge players is probably, we judge players a little bit consequence over the results
12:14also because Malo helped us a lot when we were in a good run, I think we won in some
12:21moment of the season we won eight, seven, eight or nine games in a row and he was a
12:26fantastic part of the team, so in this moment probably we can judge Malo a little bit consequence
12:33over the results but for me Malo is a main player, he's an important player and he's
12:39doing well.
12:40Last year you didn't really have Rhys James to worry about in terms of competition, I
12:44know James has been out a lot this season but he's also been available a lot, he's
12:48played a lot, has that kind of affected Malo at all?
12:53Is it maybe better, do some players thrive more when they don't have that kind of direct
13:00competition?
13:03I don't think so, also because if we have been where we have been for the season and
13:11we are one point from the fourth and four points from the third, probably it's also
13:16because when we didn't use Malo we used Rhys and Rhys helped us and when we didn't use
13:21Rhys Malo helped us, so it's good to have both players that they can help us and as
13:26I said probably the reason why is because almost in all positions we have two players
13:31for position that they can help us and probably the competition is good for them but it's
13:38especially good for the team because it can help the team to do better.