Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca admitted Chelsea were exceeding his expectations after they produced a wonderful comeback to win 4-3 at Tottenham this afternoon.
The West London side were 2-0 down inside 11 minutes after two slips from Marc Cucurella, who seemingly had the wrong type of boots on, but fought back to move four points behind Premier League leaders Liverpool.
Cole Palmer scored two penalties with Jadon Sancho and Enzo Fernandez also on target as Chelsea secured their fourth successive win in all competitions.
Cole Palmer weaves his way through the Tottenham defence and Enzo Fernandez is there to finish it off with a brilliant strike đź’« pic.twitter.com/UofYO0PxY4
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) December 8, 2024
Maresca took over in the summer after leading Leicester to promotion last season and the Italian has been hugely impressive so far at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea showed mental strength – Maresca
Asked if he had been surprised by the speed of their progress, he told BBC Radio 5 Live: “For sure, 100 per cent. We are ahead of my expectation, in terms of the way we play on the ball, off the ball and in terms of the results.
“We changed again tonight seven players and will make changes on Thursday and Sunday because they are good and all deserve to play.
“Mentally we showed how strong we are. Overall we deserved to win the game.
“On the ball I think, even when we conceded the two goals, we were playing very good. The team was playing very good and then second half, up until the last five minutes we conceded nothing at all and created chances. We deserved to win the game.”
Ice-cold Palmer stars
Palmer was again outstanding, the England international delivering a man-of-the-match performance capped by his two goals – the second spot-kick a delightful Panenka.
“I know Cole from a long time ago and I always trust him in every aspect,” added Maresca. “He is a fantastic guy. He is learning how to play games when he is marked man-to-man, [Yves] Bissouma was with him all the game.
“He is learning, improving and scoring goals. That makes him happy and makes us happy.”
Asked about Cucurella’s footwear, Maresca said: “He said to me after the game that he was trying to bring emotion to the game!
“It’s more a question for Marc. They are mature enough to decide what boots they need for the game. The most important thing is that we were 2-0 but we continued the same way to create chances.”
