Enzo Maresca was ‘very happy’ with all of his players after Chelsea’s rampant 5-1 win at West Ham, but claimed Estevao, Jamie Gittens and Jorrel Hato are still yet to fully ‘adapt’ to the Premier League.
The Blues got off to a nightmare start at the London Stadium as Lucas Paqueta capitalised on a mistake from Estevao and hammered a thunderous 30-yard strike beyond Robert Sanchez in only the ninth minute.
But Chelsea’s response was emphatic, with Joao Pedro and Pedro Neto both netting before Enzo Fernandez joined the fun to give the visitors a two-goal cushion at the halfway stage in east London.
Moises Caicedo and Trevoh Chalobah got on the scoresheet in quick succession to increase the deficit at the start of the second half and Maresca’s men held firm to cruise to their first victory of the campaign in some style.
Having been well beaten by Sunderland in their season opener, it proved another miserable outing for the Hammers – and Graham Potter looked despondent on the touchline as referee Michael Oliver blew his whistle to signal full-time.
Your ultimate guide to the football season
Metro’s weekly football newsletter: In The Mixer. Exclusive analysis, FPL tips and transfer talk sent straight to your inbox every Friday – sign up, it’s an open goal.
Cole Palmer’s pre-match withdrawal due to a groin injury put a slight dampener an otherwise positive evening for Maresca and it remains to be seen how long Chelsea will be without their star man.
‘Cole, in the last four or five days, he was not 100 per cent,’ the Chelsea head coach told reporters at his post-match press conference.
‘Today, he tried in the warm-up but he felt something so we preferred to not take any risks.
‘We will see in the next hours if it’s something important or not.’
Maresca praised Palmer for making a ‘big effort’ to get himself fit for the contest despite feeling discomfort in his groin area.
‘It was already in the Palace game that he was not 100 per cent,’ Maresca added.
‘But he’s trying to make a big effort for the club, for the team, for the fans because he’s really keen about the team.
‘Tonight, again, he tried again but it was not very good.’
Maresca was pleased with how his players managed to stick to their pre-match game-plan after their less-than-ideal start in the derby.
‘I’m very happy, very impressed, especially because we didn’t start in the right way with Cole’s injury and conceding a goal after five minutes,’ the Italian continued.
‘But the reaction was very good.
‘The start was not the best or in the way we planned, but the reaction from the players… you can see how confident they are about the game-plan and they stuck to the game-plan on and off the ball. This is something for me that is very good.’
While Estevao shone in place of Palmer on his full Premier League debut, Maresca encouraged the 18-year-old to learn from his error which led to Paqueta’s early strike.
‘We conceded the goal because of him. He lost the goal in the build-up so he needs to make mistakes to learn,’ Maresca explained.
‘But overall, his performance was very good.’
On Estevao’s reaction to the blunder, Maresca added: ‘That shows how good he is and it’s the reason why he’s here with us.’
According to Maresca, Joao Pedro and Liam Delap are ‘a little more ahead of’ some of Chelsea’s new arrivals by virtue of having Premier League experience under their belts.
‘Joao Pedro, Liam, Estevao, Jamie Gittens are all fantastic players,’ he went on.
‘You can see that Liam and probably Joao are a little bit more ahead of the rest, but the reason why is that they were already here in England.
‘Jamie needs to adapt a little bit, Estevao needs to adapt, Hato, as well, needs time to adapt. But overall, we are very happy with all of them.’
There has been some debate and speculation as to whether Pedro and Delap will both be able fit into Chelsea’s starting XI – but Maresca is adamant the two forwards are well suited to playing in the same team.
Asked why he decided to both of his summer signings in his attack, Maresca replied: ‘The reason why is because I saw that they can both play together.
‘We didn’t play since we started with both together, this was the first time, and I think it worked quite well.
‘We can do much, much better, but overall, we are happy with that.’
For more stories like this, check our sport page.
Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.