Enzo Maresca, getty images October 18, 2025, 11:25 p.m

Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca shared his impressions after his team’s confident victory over Nottingham Forest (3:0) in the eighth round of the English Premier League.

The Italian was watching the game from the stands as he was serving a suspension due to sending off in the previous match.

“In the first half we struggled a bit. Without the ball we acted well, but with the ball we made a few mistakes and allowed the opponent to create chances.
My message at half-time was this: we have good pressing, but we didn’t play well enough with the ball. We were imprecise in the construction of attacks. In the second half, we adjusted the game somewhat tactically and showed ourselves better,” Maresca said.

Also, the coach of the “blues” mentioned about the expulsion in the match:

“Of course, we could have done better with the red card, it was a mistake at 3-0, it could have been avoided, but at the same time the desire of the players not to concede a goal was also important. In the last four or five minutes they were shouting to each other: ‘don’t concede, don’t concede’.

Regarding the rotation of the team and the physical conditions of individual football players, Maresca noted:

“At the moment the main thing is to protect the players. We already knew that Romeo would not play 90 minutes. The plan was for 45 minutes for Romeo. Moise cannot play 90 minutes, so the decision was to start with Moise or Romeo. Romeo needed a boost to start the match and that was planned.”

Maresca also commented on the performance of individual players:

“Garnacho had a fantastic game against Liverpool so it was good to give him another chance.
Jamie had a good game when he came on. Marc Guillaume also played well.”

The coach also talked about tactical adaptation to the opponent:

“Also we planned the game expecting the opposition to play with a four-man defense instead of a five-man defense. Joao Pedro is better to play forward against a four-man defense than a five-man defense. If you think about the games against West Ham away and Fulham at home, we used Liam Delap against a five-man defense. So at half-time we made changes and the game was better.”

Chelsea will play their next match in the Champions League against Ajax (October 22).