‘They destroy us’ - Enzo Maresca repeats Pep Guardiola’s stunning Newcastle United claim

The Blues inflicted Newcastle United their third defeat of the season at Stamford Bridge with goals from Nicolas Jackson and Cole Palmer earning them a 2-1 win. Chelsea moved into fourth place with the win and now sit five points above the Magpies in the Premier League table ahead of their meeting in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night.

Speaking about the game, Maresca revealed an insight into his tactical approach - one that has been used by Pep Guardiola, whom he worked closely alongside at Manchester City, in the past. The Italian admitted that he wanted his side to control the speed of the game and ensure they weren’t too open and allow the Magpies to exploit them on the transition.

He said: “There are games, especially today, where if you do a basketball game, they [will] destroy us because Newcastle are strong, they are good, they have some good players in transition. The reason why I was telling [my players] calm, was this type of game is that before you attack, you need to make 15, 20 or 25 passes. 

“If you want to attack with two passes, they are long distance and they can recover the ball and create and cause problems. The reason why I was shouting all game ‘calm, calm, calm, make passes…’ was because against them if you do an up and down game, they’d destroy us, they’d destroy every team.”

Maresca’s words are eerily similar to ones spoken by Guardiola in August last year following Manchester City’s win over the Magpies in the Premier League. At that time, after his side edged out the Magpies 1-0 thanks to a sole Julian Alvarez strike, Guardiola said: “We spoke a lot; in an open game, in a transition game, they will destroy us, so we have to make a lot of control with a lot of passes. That’s why we put a lot of players in the middle to have extra, extra passes, and in the right moment we will find the moment.”