Maresca addresses claim that Lavia injury damaged his team in winless run | OneFootball

Chelsea’s season was going so well, but as always in the Premier League you’ve never more than a few weeks from disaster. We haven’t reached that stage yet, but the awesome momentum building up in this team has taken a hammer blow in the last few weeks.

A draw and two defeats are the headlines, but there’s more under the surface too – Mykhailo Mudryk’s doping ban, the declining form of some key attacking players, and today’s announcement from Enzo Maresca that Wesley Fofana would miss the rest of the season and that Benoit Badiashile is also going to miss significant time.

Chelsea better team with Lavia – but Maresca won’t use injuries as an excuse

Romeo Lavia in midfield for Chelsea.

Romeo Lavia is close to a return on the other hand – but the team’s decline in form has come in his absence, something Maresca was asked to address today. He didn’t use it as an excuse, but admitted there was no denying his team was weaker without Lavia in it:

“I think football is all about players. We can have the best idea, but if you don’t have players, you struggle. Romeo for us is a top player and for sure with Romeo we are a better team, but when Romeo is not there we need to also manage that kind of game. I think since we started we won games without Romeo,” Maresca said.

“We lose a game without Romeo, but for sure if you ask me we are a better team with Romeo, but not only with Romeo, we are a much, much, much, much better team with Reece James. So it’s all about players, it’s not about… Again, I can give the players the tools, how they are to behave for sure 100%, but if they are not good enough I can give them all the tools that I have, but if they are not good enough we are not going to win games.”