Maresca hails James but admits Chelsea’s missed chances are ‘worrying’

Enzo Maresca hailed the fit-again Reece James after the defender’s late equaliser rescued a point for Chelsea against Bournemouth.

But the Blues head coach admitted his players need to understand why they drop performance levels.

Chelsea’s winless run in the Premier League now extends to five games, but they remain fourth in the table.

Cole Palmer put them ahead in the 13th minute before the Cherries responded in the second half with a penalty by Justin Kluivert and a strike from Antoine Semenyo.

Substitute James, back after several months out injured, fired home a superb free-kick five minutes into stoppage time.

“I am very happy for him (James) and he gave us the point,” said Maresca.

“I am very pleased, especially after a difficult moment for him. Now the target for him is to keep fit and to help us in the way we want to play.

“It was good to see (the equaliser) and we can compare Reece in free-kicks with Cole (Palmer). So at least we are now happy with a point.”

Maresca is aware, though, that Chelsea still need to improve.

The Italian said: “It was one of our best first-half performances of the season, but it had to finish with a different score, like 2-0.

“When you play in they way we did it was worrying that we were not clinical in the second half.

“Every game is different, and after they scored the penalty we dropped a little bit. At these times we need a bit of personality and character.

“I am not worried (about the top-four status) – I am more concerned with how I can improve the team.

“Tonight after the penalty we conceded, it is not normal how we dropped and we want to know the reason why. The players need to go through these moments to understand.

“We analyse the game and we created many chances. Sometimes you need ten chances to score. We sometimes struggle to score goals but we are not struggling to create chances.”