Leeds United 3-1 Chelsea: Enzo Maresca says Blues can take "nothing" from Elland Road defeat, comments on Estevao Willian substitution

Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca admits that he could take "nothing" positive from Wednesday's 3-1 defeat at Leeds United.

On the back of strong performances against Barcelona and Arsenal at Stamford Bridge, Maresca anticipated more of the same in the first of three away matches in succession.

Instead, an early Leeds goal set the tone for the home side as they ran out deserved winners in Yorkshire.

Although Pedro Neto halved a two-goal deficit soon after his introduction at half time and the likes of Cole Palmer and Joao Pedro squandered openings, Chelsea could have few complaints about the end result.

'We need to understand our mistakes'

Speaking at a press conference after the game, Maresca conceded that Leeds had outperformed his team in "all the aspects" of the match.

The Italian told reporters: "I think they were better than us in all the aspects. They deserved to win the game.

"There is nothing that we can take from this game. The only thing we can do is try to understand the mistake we have done, try to reset, because again in 48 hours we have one more game."

However, Maresca was quick to insist that it was not plausible to expect Chelsea, particularly with a side that featured five changes, to reach the same performance levels on a match-by-match basis.

He added: "For sure when you play against the last two games against Barcelona and Arsenal, you expect better performance, no doubt. But for many reasons it's not going to be possible for every game.

"Again, because we change players, because we have players that we said many times that for them it's not possible to play every two, three days. And when you change players, also the level drop is the reality, because they are important players for us, but they can be important players for any team.

"Moi [Caicedo], Reece [James], Wes [Fofana], these kind of players. But we cannot use them every game. It's impossible, because otherwise they can get injured again and be out for months and months and months."

Why did Maresca substitute Estevao against Leeds?

For the second game in succession, Estevao Willian was substituted at half time. Against Arsenal, it was due to Chelsea being reduced to 10 men.

On this occasion, Maresca admitted that the Brazil international had perhaps not coped with the experience of playing at a hostile Elland Road as much as he may have anticipated.

Maresca said: "I think the feeling with Estevao was a little bit, 'welcome to Premier League, welcome to Leeds'.

"The impact for him must have been probably a big, big impact for him. The reason why we changed him is because he was already a yellow card. Sometimes when you are 18, you struggle to manage emotion, so it was better to change him and to avoid any red card."

Chelsea have dropped to fourth position in the Premier League table ahead of the trip to Bournemouth on Saturday afternoon.