Enzo Maresca says Chelsea star ‘was not good enough’ after Fulham win

Enzo Maresca believes Enzo Fernandez ‘was not good enough’ in the first half of Chelsea’s 2-0 win against Fulham on Saturday.

Joao Pedro opened the scoring for Chelsea on the stroke of half time before Fernandez sealed the victory from the penalty spot in the second half.

After a poor first-half display, Fernandez was clearly upset and as he headed towards the tunnel for the break the World Cup winner was seen offering his captain’s armband to Chelsea’s fitness coach Marcos Alvarez.

When asked why Fernandez appeared frustrated at half-time, Maresca replied: ‘The answer is, he’s a Club World Cup winner, he’s a World Cup winner.

‘And I think probably he’s the only player in the world to win both titles. And when he’s not good enough, he can recognise. And probably he was upset for that. Because in the first-half I think he was not good enough.

‘Then in the second-half he was, like the rest, brilliant. So probably the reason why he was not happy is because he can see that he was not good enough.

‘And in the second half I think he was brilliant. But at the end of the game they were all dancing or celebrating the win. So Enzo was there and he was happy.

‘If you see when we scored with Joao, I immediately left the bench because I was more worried to improve in the second-half. So I came back in the changing room to prepare the tactical board and everything.’

Maresca was also full of praise for Trevoh Chalobah after Chelsea secured their second clean sheet of the season.

‘Since he came back in January he’s doing very well,’ Maresca said.

‘The reason why we achieved what we achieved last season is also because of Trev, in the final against PSG in the Club World Cup he was top.

‘He’s doing very well and we are happy with him.’

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