£200,000-per-week star deemed surplus by Maresca and likely to quit Chelsea
Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca has already deemed a high-profile member of his squad surplus-to-requirement, and it is believed he’s ready to sell the player despite some public statements of backing recently.
Cole Palmer bags four as Chelsea thrash Brighton
Their fantastic start to the new Premier League season continued over the weekend with a resounding 4-2 victory over Brighton on Saturday, and the first half at Stamford Bridge was particularly eventful.
Brighton summer signing Georginio Rutter gave the away side a shock lead just seven minutes into the contest, but it didn’t take long for superstar Cole Palmer to set the score right – bagging a hat-trick in the space of 10 minutes to make it 3-1 just past the half-hour mark.
Carlos Noom Quomah Baleba grabbed one back for Brighton three minutes after Palmer’s third, but the England forward was on hand to restore his side’s two-goal advantage soon afterwards – scoring his fourth of the game just before first-half stoppage time.
The score remained 4-2, gifting Maresca his third-consecutive win in the Premier League and stretching Chelsea’s unbeaten run to five on the bounce. Palmer wasn’t the only player to impress in west London either, with summer signing Jadon Sancho becoming only the third Chelsea player in history to bag an assist in each of his first three games for the club.
“In terms of the way we played on the ball, we scored four,” said Maresca on Chelsea’s crazy first half against Brighton.
“We could have scored three or four more in the first-half. And then the two goals we conceded, the first one is a mistake, a normal mistake.
“The second one is not about trying to play from behind. For me, it’s more about reading the moment. We were 1-0 down and then 3-1 up, in that moment we don’t need to take any risks. It’s more for them to take risks, not us. I said to Robert [Sanchez] and the players, ‘from now on, we are going to concede 10 more goals like the way we conceded the second goal’. It’s the way we want to play.
“We already scored goals with Robert involved in the build-up but it is important after the mistake, the team continue in the same way. It means they enjoy, they like and they see also that we win games.”
There are those who didn’t play a part against Brighton, and have been forced to play a bit-part role under Maresca. Midfielder Carney Chukwuemeka was nowhere to be seen again, and neither was left-back Ben Chilwell.
The 27-year-old has been reintroduced into first-team training and the matchday squads by Maresca recently, with the £200,000-per-week Englishman playing his first 45 minutes of the season against Barrow in the EFL Cup last week.
Chilwell deemed surplus by Maresca and likely to quit Chelsea
However, he is yet to play a single Premier League minute this term, and TEAMtalk have shared an update on the ex-Leicester City star’s future this week. Jut
| Chelsea’s next Premier League fixtures | Date |
|---|---|
| Nottingham Forest (home) | October 6 |
| Liverpool (away) | October 20 |
| Newcastle (home) | October 27 |
| Man United (away) | November 3 |
| Arsenal (home) | November 10 |
