Chelsea coach Enzo Maresca admitted that Chelsea exceeded his expectations after pulling off an impressive comeback to win 4-3 over Tottenham this afternoon.
The west London side were 2-0 down inside 11 minutes after two slips from Mark Cucurella, who appeared to be wearing the wrong kind of boots, but fought back to move four points clear of Premier League leaders Liverpool.
Cole Palmer scored two penalty kicks, and Jadon Sancho and Enzo Fernandez added the second goal, as Chelsea achieved its fourth consecutive victory in all competitions.
Cole Palmer works his way through the Tottenham defense and finds Enzo Fernandes to finish with a stunning shot 💫 pic.twitter.com/UofYO0PxY4
– Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) December 8, 2024
Maresca took over in the summer after guiding Leicester to promotion last season and the Italian has been hugely impressive so far at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea showed their mental strength – Marisca
Asked if he had been surprised by the speed of their progress, he told BBC Radio 5 Live: “Absolutely, 100 per cent. We are ahead of my expectations, in terms of the way we play with the ball, without the ball, in terms of results.
“We changed seven players again tonight and we will make changes on Thursday and Sunday because they are good and they all deserve to play.
He added: “Mentally, we showed how strong we are. In general, we deserved to win the match.
“On the ball, I think even when we conceded the two goals, we were playing very well. The team was playing very well and then in the second half, until the last five minutes, we did not concede anything at all and created chances. We deserved to win the game.”
Cold Palmer stars
Palmer was outstanding once again, as the England international put in a man-of-the-match performance, capped off by a brace – the second penalty scored by a brilliant Panenka.
“I have known Cole for a long time and I always trust him in every aspect,” Maresca added. “He's a great guy. He's learning how to play matches when he's being marked man-to-man, and (Yves) Bissouma was with him the whole game.
“He is learning, improving and scoring goals. This makes him happy and makes us happy.”
When asked about Cucurella's boots, Maresca said: “He told me after the match that he was trying to bring emotion to the match!
“It's a question for Mark. They are mature enough to decide what boots they need for the game. The most important thing is that we were 2-0 up but we continued in the same way of creating chances.”
