Newcastle were only lucky to secure 2-goal simple because of…..” Enzo Maresca Revealed the reason behind Chelsea defeat at Newcastle after the Magpies secured the win at St James’ Park,
Enzo Maresca felt there was no need to bring Cole Palmer onto the pitch during Chelsea’s 2-0 defeat to Newcastle United in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night.
The Magpies secured the win at St James’ Park, with Alexander Isak scoring first and an own goal from Axel Disasi sealing a tough night for Chelsea. Newcastle advanced to the quarter-finals, where they will face Brentford, while Maresca will look elsewhere for his first trophy as Chelsea’s manager.
Given that Newcastle took the lead after just 26 minutes, it seemed surprising that Maresca made only one substitution for the remainder of the match. Noni Madueke was introduced in the second half, but Palmer remained on the bench despite his potential impact.
When asked about not utilizing Palmer, Maresca explained that Joao Felix and Christopher Nkunku were performing well, so he felt no changes were necessary. “No, no, no,” he said. “Simply because I think Joao and Christo were doing very well. We brought him in case we needed Cole, but Joao and Christo were doing fine, so there was no need to change.”
Maresca acknowledged the disappointing result but expressed satisfaction with his team’s overall performance, noting their dominance in possession and the 17 shots they took compared to Newcastle’s eight. “If we analyze the performance, it worked. If we look at the result, it didn’t,” he stated. “For 22 or 23 minutes until their goal, we were in control and didn’t concede anything. However, after the goal, we lost control for about 10 minutes and conceded again. In the last 10 minutes of the first half, we had two or three clear chances but failed to score.”
He added, “In the second half, we were in control. While the result is important, we lost the game due to that brief loss of control after their first goal, but for the rest of the match, we played quite well.”
This match followed Chelsea’s 2-1 victory over Newcastle in the Premier League on Sunday, and Magpies boss Eddie Howe was pleased with his team’s response. “You always learn from every game and try to apply those lessons in the next match. We faced the same opponent, but they were a very different team, and I’m sure they learned from Sunday as well,” he said.
Howe noted, “There was a better feel in our out-of-possession play tonight. We improved on the details and turned regains into forward chances. The second half wasn’t easy to manage, as they brought on some strong players from the bench, but I thought we defended exceptionally well.”
