Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca has been speaking to the media before Tuesday’s Carabao Cup third round game against Barrow (kick-off 1945 BST).
Here are the key lines from his news conference:
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Maresca confirmed Malo Gusto is fit and available for the match, while Romeo Lavia has returned to training and will “hopefully” be ready for the Brighton game on Saturday.
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He said this game will be a “good chance” for those players who have not had regular minutes in the Premier League to get some time on the pitch, confirming that Ben Chilwell, Carney Chukwuemeka and some academy players will be involved.
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He added: “These players train very well every day but I can’t give them chances [in the league]. It is not because they are doing bad – you just have to make decisions.”
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He said he is “completely happy” with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, explaining the midfielder is having to “adapt mentally” after being the “main player [at Leicester] to not the main player [at Chelsea]”.
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On the cup’s priority given it is the first opportunity to win a trophy: “It is important not because we think we are going to win the competition, but because it is an official game. Our main focus has to be to try and win.”
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After guiding Chelsea to fifth after five games and three points off the top: “We are ahead of where we expected to be but not in terms of results, but in the way the team is progressing and playing. We still need to learn a lot of things – attacking better, defending better – but it is important that the feeling we have is we are going in that direction.”
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On a wider sense from fans that Chelsea are making progress: “[With] social media I am lucky because I don’t have it. I think people just write things. If we win or lose, they just focus on that and not if we are improving. They just judge results, but we also need to analyse how the team is progressing.”
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He acknowledged a “dangerous” game against Barrow: “Football is full of these kinds of games where you think it is an easy game and then it is a sticky game. In this moment, it is probably the worst game for us. This is why we need to take it seriously.”
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