London, Dec 11 (IANS): Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca has highlighted the importance of defending, after his side’s 4-3 victory over Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday, and lauded his side for being balanced on both ends of the pitch. Though they eventually won the match, Chelsea conceded two early goals which put them on the back foot in the game.
"We conceded three goals against Tottenham the other day but there are still just two teams [Liverpool and Arsenal] that have conceded less than us [18 - in the Premier League]. We are attacking and defending well. You are not going to win games or titles by just scoring goals, you need to defend.
"As I said, even after conceding three goals against Spurs, there are just two clubs that have conceded less than us so that means also defensively we are doing quite well," said Mareca in the pre-match press conference.
Chelsea are flying in Enzo Maresca’s first season as head coach with the Blues sitting in second place, four points behind league leaders Liverpool. So far, the team’s 35 goals are the most scored by a team in the English top-flight and their 18 goals conceded are the third lowest in the league.
Maresca faced the media before Chelsea’s UEFA Conference League game against Astana on Tuesday. The London-based side will be travelling to Astana, Kazakhstan on Wednesday, an eight-hour journey, and will be playing in adverse conditions with the temperature hovering around -17 degrees Celsius on Tuesday. The head coach went on to acknowledge the long journey that lies ahead of his side.
"Eight hours is not a normal time for a game. We have to go there. We have to play and we are going to try and do our best while also thinking about the next game. We have a session now and then we will fly there. We will have dinner and go to bed. Fortunately, they are five hours ahead of us so that means when we wake up tomorrow it is already midday here in England.
“We are going to be there less than 24 hours, but it's more the flight and the temperature [-11C] for sure. On Friday morning we are going to land around 6 am in London and it is already Friday and we have a game Sunday, but we have to play,” he added.