Maresca claims Chelsea were "10 times better" in one aspect of heavy Celtic defeat

Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca has insisted that he was not too downhearted with his side's 4-1 defeat to Celtic on Saturday night.

The Blues went into their second friendly of five on their pre-season tour of the United States having already posted a 2-2 draw against Wrexham earlier this week.

Maresca's hope had been that his squad would deliver a winning performance against opponents who had edged out Premier League champions Manchester City on Wednesday.

However, despite starting brightly enough, Chelsea were convincingly beaten by the Scottish giants, who scored twice in either half to post another notable triumph.

Although Chelsea probably deserved their consolation in the 89th minute through Christopher Nkunku's penalty, it was clear there is much work ahead to improve from a defensive standpoint.

🚨🚨| GOAL: Johnston makes it FOUR!!

Chelsea 0-4 Celtic pic.twitter.com/hwVIEcrkbT

— CentreGoals. (@centregoals) July 27, 2024

How did Maresca react to humbling?

While Maresca was quick to acknowledge that Chelsea's setup off the ball was below the standards expected, he suggested he had no issues with their performance in possession.

As quoted by football.london, Maresca said: "As we said, the result is always important. For us, we need to analyse the game in general.

"I think on the ball, the team were 10 times better than in the game against Wrexham and that is important because we can see the amount of chances we created first half and second half.

"And off the ball, for sure, we can improve things and you can see sometimes we confuse when we need to play short, a little bit longer. It's part of the process."

Maresca was later quizzed on why goalkeeper Robert Sanchez opted for as many long balls as he did, which is, theoretically, against the Italian's philosophy and what is expected from the owners.

He explained: "They were marking us man-to-man; the idea was to try and find some solution in behind but it is something we prepared on the tactical board and didn't try in the training session.

"The reason why is because we are trying so many things and we don't have enough time to try everything. We started just 15 or 20 days ago."

© Imago

What now for Chelsea?

Chelsea now have longer to prepare for their next encounter, which comes against Club America on Wednesday night, before they square off against Man City and Real Madrid.

The West Londoners then return home to meet Inter Milan at Stamford Bridge on August 11, a week before their Premier League opener versus Man City.