Enzo Maresca insisted Chelsea are ready for a high-profile Champions League meeting with Barcelona, saying the squad feel “confident” after Saturday\u2019s win at Turf Moor.<\/p>\n
The Catalans arrive at Stamford Bridge for the first time since 2018, having scored 14 goals in their last four matches. That run makes Barcelona the toughest assignment so far in Chelsea\u2019s return to the Champions League, but Maresca did not sound worried following the Burnley victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re confident, we\u2019re doing well,\u201d the Italian manager said after Saturday\u2019s victory at Turf Moor. \u201cOf course we can do things better, but it was important to win. We\u2019re confident for Tuesday\u2019s game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chelsea will be without Cole Palmer for the meeting. The England international injured his toe in a freak accident at home, keeping him rooted to the sidelines for at least another three weeks.<\/p>\n
The fixture list offers little respite. Five days after the Blues take on Barcelona in the Champions League, they must host Arsenal to close out November. That Premier League encounter will pit the division\u2019s top two teams against one another and could be decisive in the title race.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need our fans for the next two home games. We had a great feeling with them before and after the match [against Burnley],\u201d the 45-year-old boss said. \u201cI think they can be happy with the team. We\u2019re second, [six] points behind the leader, and we\u2019re very happy to share these moments with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
A win over Arsenal would put the Club World Cup champions within striking distance of first place ahead of the holiday season. In the Champions League, Maresca\u2019s side know three points against Barcelona would likely catapult the Blues to just outside the top eight with three matches to go in the league phase.<\/p>\n
With confidence restored and supporters encouraged, Chelsea prepare for two demanding home fixtures that will shape their progress in both Europe and the Premier League.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Maresca insists Chelsea are confident as they prepare to face Barcelona, despite Palmer’s injury….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4660,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1017,190],"tags":[1047,319],"class_list":["post-4661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-barcelona","category-chelsea","tag-champions-league","tag-cole-palmer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}