Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca has actually claimed that he didn’t see too many differences in Chelsea and Newcastle’s performances compared to the weekend.
Chelsea beat Newcastle 2-1 at Stamford Bridge on Sunday afternoon in the Premier League. But then last night in the League Cup, they lost 2-0 to Newcastle away from home, which is a stark contrast in results.
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Newcastle will be pleased with their reactions to turn around from defeat to knock Chelsea out of the cup. Manager Eddie Howe will be very happy with how his players responded.
But Enzo Maresca’s side looked like a completely different team to the one who beat Newcastle on Sunday and by and large, they actually were, quite literally.
Maresca always fields his ‘B-team’ in cup competitions to keep the first team fresh, and perhaps this was the downfall and the main difference between the two games.
Maresca didn’t see many differences
Q. How were Newcastle different than on Sunday?
Maresca: “I didn’t see a big difference. I think the last game they were more or less in the same way as tonight; trying to be aggressive. Last Sunday, and today, I think we did quite well. Probably the first goal is one that we can avoid because we knew that playing through the middle, they are quite aggressive, so the solution is to go outside but it can happen. I didn’t see a big difference between tonight and two days ago.
“For them, they probably need to win this game to build the momentum because of the last results.”
I think Newcastle pressed much better to be honest, that was the key difference for them. And for us, it was personnel. We just didn’t have the same quality as we had on Sunday starting the game.
Quotes via Football London.
