Chelsea team news: Enzo Maresca reveals regret over leaving specific player out of Leeds United defeat

Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca has revealed that he regrets not selecting Josh Acheampong against Leeds United on Wednesday night.

On the back of playing for over 50 minutes with 10 men against Arsenal three days earlier, Maresca made five alterations in a bid to freshen up his side for the game at Elland Road.

However, the decision did not pay off as Chelsea deservedly suffered a 3-1 defeat to the relegation-threatened outfit in Yorkshire.

While changes were made to the Blues backline, Maresca again opted against selecting Acheampong, creating a sense of frustration among the fanbase who would prefer to see the academy graduate featuring more regularly.

Speaking at a press conference ahead of the Premier League fixture with Bournemouth on Friday morning, Maresca has suggested that he made the wrong decision in leaving the youngster on the substitutes' bench.

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Maresca reveals Acheampong regret

The Italian told reporters: "One of the regrets I have after the game is I didn't play with Josh.

"So the reason why we played with Trev [Chalobah], Tosin [Adarabioyo] and Benoit [Badiashile] is because analysing them, we saw that most of the time they were playing long ball for Calvert-Lewin, for [Lukas] Nmecha.

"And so we prefer physicality to win aerial duels. But even with that, we lost most of them."

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Hope for Acheampong or subtle digs?

Maresca's latest comments would suggest that Acheampong remains very much in his thinking despite a surprising lack of game time of late.

In matches that brought clean sheets against Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest, the 19-year-old was one of the best players on the pitch.

Nevertheless, since his withdrawal against Sunderland on October 25, where he was not on the pitch for the decisive goal that was conceded, Acheampong has only started an EFL Cup tie at Wolverhampton Wanderers and been given token minutes against Barcelona.

On the flip side, Maresca used the opportunity to criticise three of his other centre-backs, presumably to try to motivate them to improve.

Either way, Acheampong will be confident of featuring against Bournemouth or Atalanta BC over the next week.