Glenn Hoddle has hit out at Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca for “tying down” Cole Palmer during their 1-1 draw against Arsenal on Sunday.
The Blues went behind to a Gabriel Martinelli on the hour mark before Pedro Neto’s long-range strike gave Chelsea a share of the spoils at Stamford Bridge.
Palmer struggled to have his usual impact on the match against Arsenal and Hoddle thinks Maresca is to blame for the England international’s average display for Chelsea.
Hoddle told Stadium Astro after the match: “Because of (Bukayo) Saka’s threat, (Marc) Cucurella stayed out there [on the left] and did his job – he got player of the match and it was probably right because he stopped Saka playing and bursting.
“So they didn’t put him in midfield, they put (Malo) Gusto in midfield from the right-back position which stopped Palmer for me.”
Hoddle added: “Gusto played in that inside left channel and tied him down a bit. For me, there are times when you have to let that lad play across the arc and play as a 10.
“He didn’t really play as a ten, he was in that inside forward position and Neto was outside of him until he came over to the right in the second half which I was hoping because he’s better on the right.
“But Palmer I felt was tied down and he didn’t play so well today.”
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On the performance, Chelsea boss Maresca said: “I think the performance was good. We played the way we wanted to play both on the ball and off the ball. The game for some moments was open and anything could have happened for either side but 100 per cent we deserved the point. This is important.”
When asked about why Chelsea haven’t beaten one of the big sides yet under his guidance, Maresca replied: “Do you think we deserved to lose against Liverpool? No. But this is football and it can happen. Very soon we are going to win this kind of game but for sure in this moment, the performance is very important because if you draw tonight and you don’t deserve the draw, then you might be happy with the result but not the performance.
“For me, Bournemouth away we didn’t deserve to win and we won. And at home to Palace and Forest, we deserved to win and we didn’t win so it is game-by-game and soon we are going to win this kind of game. But our performance has been very good.”
