Maresca on Chelsea return to top four with West Ham win
04/02/2025
Stamford Bridge, London, UK
04/02/2025
Stamford Bridge, London, UK
Category
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SportsTranscript
00:00Okay, who wants to get us underway?
00:18Anybody?
00:19Davide?
00:20Yeah, I was very happy especially because I consider tonight's game probably the toughest
00:43game in terms of mentally because, you know, in this moment when teams come here and just
00:49they sit back waiting for our mistake, there is no space to attack, you need to be patient.
00:56First half, you know, we tried, we were playing in the opposite side but there was no space.
01:0111 players, Bowen, Marking, Caicedo, they just allow us to play with tossing with the
01:06ball but they try to frustrate us so you need to be mentally strong and even with that I
01:15think first half we had 4-5 clear chances that unfortunately we missed the target and
01:21then we conceded a goal from our mistake and this is the reason why I said you need to
01:25be mentally strong because my message at half-time was don't change nothing, continue in the
01:31same way because they cannot be so intense for 95 minutes, it's impossible, they were
01:35just running behind the ball and second half we found a little bit more space and also
01:41the guys that were from the bench inside, they were very good so very happy for that.
02:12First of all, I didn't know that losing first half and then we were able to win. I think
02:20this season already happened that we were losing and then at the end we won the game.
02:27In the same time, it happened many times that we were winning and we didn't win, especially
02:31in the last 4-5-6 games but I think it's football, sometimes it happens in one side, sometimes
02:36it happens in the other side but important is the performance. I think we completely
02:42deserve to win the game. As I said, teams come here and try to frustrate us just waiting
02:47for our mistake and then Nico and Mark, to be honest, both, they said to me that they
02:57are okay so hopefully no one of them is injured.
03:07They just asked me on the other side, to be honest. I was just focused on the game, I'm
03:14still thinking about the game, now they are there, the Sport Director and the Chairman,
03:19we are there, we sit and we see all the things that happen but everything that happened was
03:26planned from me, from the club, from all together.
03:37No, we have Tyreek, it's a very good profile and probably we can find some different solution
03:43like the last half an hour we played with Kukwaja and Christo inside, so we are going
03:51to try to find a different solution.
03:53I'm sure you'll be pleased that the window is shut in about 15 minutes. How pleased are
03:59you with it on the whole in terms of how the squad now looked?
04:02No, first of all very happy because it's closed. So the ones that are here are the ones that
04:07are going to be with us until the end and this is the main reason why I'm happy. And
04:12then I think the ones that they left, we were all agreed that they could go and so we are
04:21okay.
04:22You changed the goalkeeper tonight as well, there was a big cheer from the fans when Filippo
04:26Vincente was announced. I just wondered what you think about that and how you think he
04:30did as well?
04:31No, just I think in this moment Robert needs a rest to calm down a little bit and Filippo
04:39was very good. But as I said during the week, the good thing is that we have two good keepers
04:44and we can decide.
04:47You had Cristo come off the bench today, he's had a lot of speculation this month. How has
04:55he been? Have you had to speak to him to refocus him?
04:58No, Cristo since day one has been very good, very professional. Probably in some moment
05:06I have been unfair with him because probably he deserves something more. But hopefully
05:12from now on he can help us a little bit more.