Enzo Maresca revealed several of his key Chelsea players are carrying injuries after his side slipped to a late 2-1 defeat against Sunderland.
Chemsdine Talbi’s injury-time winner continued Sunderland’s superb start to the Premier League season, with the newly-promoted side now temporarily up to second.
Chelsea, meanwhile, missed out on the opportunity to make it five wins on the spin despite taking the lead just four minutes into the contest through Alejandro Garnacho.
But the Blues struggled to press home their early advantage and were ultimately punished for a frustrating performance by Talbi’s winner after Wilson Isidor had levelled proceedings midway through the first half.,
Maresca’s side looked somewhat out of steam towards the end of Saturday’s home fixture in what was their third match in seven days.
Get personalised updates on Chelsea every day
Wake up to find news on your club in your inbox every morning with Metro’s Football Newsletter.
Sign up to our newsletter and then select your team in the link we’ll send you so we can get football news tailored to you.
But the games continue to come thick and fast for the Blues, who face Wolves in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday before a trip to face London rivals Tottenham on Saturday.
The west London outfit already have a lengthy injury list, with Cole Palmer, Liam Delap, Levi Colwill, and Benoit Badiashile amongst those currently available.
But Maresca said that Joao Pedro, Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo are all also nursing injuries which is affecting their ability to train in between matches.
‘I think Joao is not training every day because he’s managing a little bit himself from the injury problem,’ Maresca said when asked about the Brazilian’s performance.
‘Moi [Caicedo] is exactly the same, Enzo [Fernandez] is exactly the same. We have four or five players that unfortunately, because of some problems, they cannot work every day and they try to make the effort to play the game.
‘So Joao in some games has been better, today he struggled a little bit. But today I think overall all the players struggled today, so it’s not just about Joao.’
Asked about his side’s performance more generally, Maresa did not mince his words, adding: ‘I think in general we were not good enough. When you are not good enough in the Premier League, we know that the consequence can be the bad one.
‘The second goal we conceded, I said already many times, when you are not able to win, it’s important that you don’t lose.
‘But even with that, it’s not a transition because a transition when you are open or it’s 1v1, it’s just one long ball in behind. We are 2v1 with the two central defenders and we didn’t defend properly.
‘The first goal came from a throw. Again, it’s difficult to deal because they bring six, seven, eight players inside the box, so it’s difficult. But overall, I think we were not good enough.’
For more stories like this, check our sport page.
Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.