Maresca delighted with Chelsea’s ‘serious’ performance in 5-0 win over Barrow AFC

Whenever a top division team faces a lower division team, a one-sided victory in favor of the former is to be expected. Anything less will be unsatisfactory.

And yet, it’s easy for a top-ranked team to underestimate their opponents, even if it doesn’t result in a true Magic of the Cup moment.

So Chelsea’s utter dominance against fourth-tier leaders Barrow AFC was to be expected, but the team’s focused, professional and ruthless approach was still a welcome sight – and so it was for manager Enzo Maresca, who challenged his young pupils to produce just such a performance before the match.

“I am very happy with the performance and the result. (…) I always worry a lot about these types of matches because they are tough matches. Football is full of matches where you underestimate the other team, concede goals and give away chances, but tonight I thought the performance was very good and we showed how serious we are.”

“(…) Before the match I asked the players to show how serious we are, even though they are the youngest team in the Premier League, and to show that yes, we are young but we are serious and we want to compete.”

These types of matches also tend to feature a lot of rotation, which can be a factor in teams not living up to expectations. But despite a fully rotated starting 11 and a few tactical wrinkles, execution has not suffered: certainly a promising sign as we head into the busy part of the early-season schedule.

“We made many changes, but the idea of ​​the team was exactly the same. That has to be one of our goals, it’s important that the identity of the team is always there, regardless of how we play.”

“(We) prepare the game according to how the other team defends or attacks, so we try to find a solution. Palace were one plan, today was another. Today in the first half Malo and (in the second half) Chilwell were playing like attacking midfielders with the ball, just to create an overload in one part of the pitch, so that the man with the ball would have more passing options, not just one, then he could make decisions. The idea is to give them more solutions and then they make decisions.”

-Enzo Maresca; source: Football.London

This is their third consecutive win in all competitions and three clean sheets.

The next three are also on the Bridge.

Continue!