Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca surprised observers at his post-match press conference after the win over Everton when a routine question about Malo Gusto’s display shifted into a wider complaint about backing for his team.<\/p>\n
Asked for his verdict on Gusto, Maresca began with praise before moving to a larger point. “We said many times that Reece [James] and Malo, they are both fullbacks and [against Everton] they were both midfielders,” he began. “So the effort, the open mind, the way they want to learn has been fantastic and this is the reason why I praise the players because with so many problems, they are doing very well after a complicated week.<\/p>\n
“Since I joined the club, the last 48 hours have been the worst 48 hours since I joined the club because many people didn\u2019t support us. So I\u2019m very happy for Malo in that moment that the effort from Malo and from the rest show that they are all there and they want to help this club.”<\/p>\n
Reporters sought clarification and Maresca reiterated the line: “Worst 48 hours since I joined the club because people didn\u2019t support me and the team.” When pressed on who he meant, he said: “In general. In general.” Given the opportunity to single out fans or media, Maresca added: “I love the fans and we are very happy with the fans,” he responded.<\/p>\n
The exchange left an awkward atmosphere and prompted speculation about behind-the-scenes tensions. The narrative around Chelsea in the three games before the Everton victory had been negative, though not unprecedentedly so. The Daily Mail reported a sense of calm from one insider despite the comments.<\/p>\n
Maresca and his squad now turn attention to upcoming fixtures. Chelsea face Cardiff City in the Carabao Cup quarterfinal on Tuesday before travelling to Newcastle United on Saturday, where further media scrutiny appears likely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After the Everton win Maresca called it his ‘worst 48 hours’, saying many people didn’t support them<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5070,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1067,190,969],"tags":[1066,1089,1215],"class_list":["post-5071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-carabao-cup","category-chelsea","category-premier-league","tag-carabao-cup","tag-chelsea-struggles","tag-controversy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5071","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=5071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}