Maresca’s new squad depth could make this a successful winter for Chelsea

Enzo Maresca was rightly very proud in his press conference last night after Chelsea’s draw with Arsenal.

The Blues boss saw his team put in a heroic second half performance even after having been reduced to ten men by Moises Caicedo’s bad tackle.

Maresca praises his “outstanding” team’s performance in draw

Trevoh Chalobah celebrates his goal. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

“I think sometimes you have to be happy even with one point. For sure, the target was to win the game. Again, 11v11, I think we were a better team than them,” the Chelsea boss said.

“We managed the game, we controlled the game, we created chances and we didn’t concede anything. Then the red card changed a little bit the dynamic, but even with that, I think the way the players dealt with that and were outstanding.”

We couldn’t agree more. In the past this team might have crumbled after the red, having been given the perfect chance to chuck in the towel. But they dug deep and Maresca was able to use his improved squad depth to find a result.

Alejandro Garnacho was able to come off the bench at half time, and Liam Delap later in the game to keep the energy levels up. He had the likes of Andrey Santos, Jamie Gittens and Benoit Badiashile in reserve if he needed them.

Add the likes of Cole Palmer and Dario Essugo, both recently returned to training, to this group and we should be able to cope with the hectic run of games to come.

In other news…

The bad news from the presser was that Enzo Maresca confirmed that Reece James wouldn’t be able to play against Leeds next week. His 180 minutes this week have pushed him to the limit,

James was a machine for Chelsea out there, single handedly keeping Arsenal at bay at times. His stats from the game were just silly.