Maresca praises Chelsea – but still wants improvement

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Enzo Maresca praised his much-changed Chelsea side after they eased past Gent 4-2 in their first league match of the Uefa Conference League at Stamford Bridge – but is still looking for improvement.

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Renato Veiga scored their first goals for the club as Blues head coach Maresca selected an entirely different line up, worth £400m, from the one which beat Brighton in the Premier League last weekend.

Veiga put Chelsea ahead, Pedro Neto doubled the lead and Tsuyoshi Watanabe pulled a goal back for Gent before Christopher Nkunku and Dewsbury-Hall netted as Chelsea made it 16 goals from four matches.

Omri Gandelman scored a late consolation goal for the Belgian side, who put up a spirited display but were ultimately let down by defensive frailties.

“We are performing very well not only in attack but defensively,” said head coach Maresca.

“We can do many things better. We can learn not to switch off as when they scored their second goal when the game was almost finished. Overall we are very happy with the performance and our approach to these kind of games.”

Maresca praised Dewsbury-Hall for his contribution since arriving in the summer for £30m from Leicester City.

He said: “I know Kiernan very well – I completely understand that he was the main player for Leicester. Now, he is not playing from the start at Chelsea. But he has to understand he is here because we want him.”

And Maresca is relaxed about making wholescale changes to starting line-ups in order to handle the intense demands of both domestic and European football. With a large squad to choose from.

“The players who played tonight will not play on Sunday (against Nottingham Forest),” the Italian added.

“We can change players and still see the purpose of the team. In football things can change quickly. The identity is clear.

“We can attack better. We tried to find a solution tonight as they (Gent) played with a low block. There are things we can improve but we always want to go with a strong team.”