Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has said that the key to the club’s surprise Premier League title push this season has been their defending, despite conceding three goals against Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.
Chelsea’s attacking prowess rescued them at the weekend as they fought back from a 2-0 deficit to win 4-3 away at Spurs, but Maresca said the credit for the team’s winning form in the league goes to the defence as well.
“You’re not going to win games or titles by just scoring goals, you need to defend,” Maresca told reporters ahead of Thursday’s Europa Conference League match at Astana.
“Even after conceding three goals against Spurs, there are just two clubs that have conceded less than us so that means also defensively we are doing quite well.”
Chelsea, second in the Premier League standings with 31 points, have conceded 18 goals in 15 matches, with only leaders Liverpool (11) and third-placed Arsenal (15) allowing fewer.
Maresca’s men are also in dominant form in the Conference League, sitting top of the table with four wins in a row. But the Italian did not want to see Chelsea as the favourites.
“It’s not about ambition. I am quite ambitious and the players and the club are ambitious but in my opinion if you think about things in four or five months then you can lose a bit of focus on the now,” he said.
Maresca said highly rated 18-year-old defender Josh Acheampong would probably get his first start for the team with the manager planning to leave some players out of the eight-hour flight to Kazakhstan to face 23rd-placed Astana.
“We have many young players with us and the rest are going to be here working,” Maresca said.
“Eight hours is not a normal time [to travel] for a game. We have to go there. We have to play and we are going to try and do our best while also thinking about the next game.”
Chelsea continue their Premier League campaign against Brentford on Sunday.
