Chelsea boss Maresca happy with win but admits Fernandez is playing catch-up

Enzo Maresca feels his Chelsea side are continuing to improve after registering the first win on their pre-season tour of the United States by beating Club America 3-0.

Maresca has not had the easiest of starts with the west London club following his move from Leicester City. The race row caused by midfielder Enzo Fernandez rumbled on for over a fortnight before finally being resolved while a draw with League One side Wrexham and a 4-1 hammering by Celtic raised eyebrows.

But last night’s win, which came courtesy of penalties from Christopher Nkunku and Noni Madueke either side of a header from young striker Marc Guiu, finally brought some respite.

Maresca said: “I am very happy. I said the other day when we lost that the result is always important because we are Chelsea but the main focus for us at the moment has to be to analyse or to judge the performance and see how we have improved.

“From my personal perspective, from Wrexham, to Celtic, to today, we continue to improve. This is the most important thing.

“We struggled against Wrexham for many reasons, we struggled against Celtic for many reasons but there were many important things which we improved [against Celtic]. And today, we continued that line, which is the most important thing.

“Since we started, what we do in training has to happen in the game. Against Wrexham, we prepared something and it happened. Against Celtic, the same and again today, the same thing.”

So, so silky. ✨#BluesInTheUSA pic.twitter.com/fjh5bAU1hZ

— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) August 1, 2024

Fernandez back in the mix

Fernandez’s return to the squad on Monday following an extended summer break threatened to cause disruption but the club say the matter is closed and team-mate Wesley Fofana – one of the main critics of the Argentina international’s conduct in posting a video on social media that questioned the heritage of France’s black and mixed-race players – has accepted his apology.

The former Benfica midfielder appeared for the second 45 minutes in Atlanta and Maresca admitted he is playing catch-up.

He added on the club’s official website: “You can see that he is a bit behind. In terms of his physical conditioning, he was a bit slow. He had one or two sessions with us so 45 minutes today was just another chance to give him another session.

“These kinds of games, we also use them like a training session and for Enzo, today was a very good training session.”