Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca “enjoyed” his side’s 1-1 draw at home to Arsenal on Sunday and admitted the Blues are “behind” the Gunners due to his inexperience.
Sunday’s draw lifted Arsenal and Chelsea above Nottingham Forest in the Premier League table. All three teams – and Brighton – have five wins, four draws and two losses in 2024/25.
It was a closely contested game at Stamford Bridge and Blues boss Maresca says his team put in a “brave” performance.
“I enjoyed it, absolutely,” he told BBC Sport. “The performance was good.
“We know them quite well and we competed pretty well. The performance is very important for us in this moment and it was good. We can rest now and go again.
“The performance from Pedro [Neto] was very good, all of them, complete. We played in the way we wanted to, brave, and try and play from the back always.”
On challenging and matching Arsenal, Maresca added: “It is the way we want to do the things.
“We try and play face to face against every team. We are Chelsea, so it is important to send this message.
“There are managers that have been clubs for five and nine years so we are behind them.”
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Pedro Neto equalised for Chelsea after Gabriel Martinelli’s opener and said after the game that his side are not content with a point.
“We wanted to win, but we knew we had hard work in front of us because they are a good team,” he told Sky Sports.
“We came to win, so we’re not as happy as we wanted to be, but we didn’t want to lose and it’s a good point against a good team.
“We read the game well. We had moments we could have been better but we’ve done a good job and we want to keep improving at this level.
“I am really happy to help the team. This is a group that works really hard each day. I work every day to improve, I’m trying to improve and go to my best level.”
Meanwhile, Marc Cucurella – who had a strong performance against Bukayo Saka – said: “It was a tough game.
“They’ve played together with the same ideas for a long time but we played well. We need to keep going in this way, we are doing well. We need to stay in this way and push more.
“Bukayo Saka is a top player. We’ve played a lot of times against each other, there is huge respect there.
“It is a good battle and hopefully we can have more. I try to not give him space and always be close to him. We knew he is a special talent and do my work and help my team. I tried to show the best of me.”
