Enzo Maresca has admitted that he regrets not starting Josh Acheampong for Chelsea in their defeat to Leeds United in midweek.
The Yorkshire outfit shocked the Blues at Elland Road on Wednesday, ending a four-game losing streak with a 3-1 victory to take them out of the relegation zone.
It dealt a massive blow to Chelsea‘s hopes of vying for the Premier League title just days after holding leaders Arsenal to a draw despite Moises Caicedo’s red card after half an hour. They now sit nine points adrift of the Gunners in the table.
Speaking ahead of Saturday’s trip to Bournemouth, Maresca says he was surprised by his team’s performance, but accepted that playing with a man down for so long at the weekend might have cost them against Leeds.
“I didn’t see the players yesterday but I watched the game back,” he said at his pre-match press conference. “We did many things bad but we also probably paid the bill for playing with ten men against Arsenal for an hour.
“We also probably paid the bill of playing Leeds away. I was very surprised, no doubt, because I expect more in general in all the aspects.”
Maresca made five changes to his starting lineup for the visit of Leeds, which included replacing Wesley Fofana with Tosin Adarabioyo and shifting Trevoh Chalobah to right-back to make room for Benoit Badiashile. Reece James was also dropped to the bench as Andrey Santos partnered Enzo Fernandez in a completely different midfield duo from the one that face Arsenal.
“Most of the rotation is because the other ones cannot play,” he explained. “We have players who unable to play every three days.
“When you pick 11 players and win everyone is fine but 11 players and you lose it is a problem.”
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Acheampong has not started any of Chelsea’s last seven games in all competitions, but Maresca wishes he had given the 18-year-old central defender the nod against Leeds after Adarabioyo was dispossessed for the visitor’s third goal.
“One of the regrets I have after the game is that I didn’t play with Josh,” the Italian admitted.
“The reason why we played with Trevoh, Benoit and Tosin was because we saw long balls to their strikers, but even [with] that, we lost most of them.”
Maresca added: “We are always talking about experience when we drop points but when we beat Barcelona and drew with Arsenal, no one is talking about experienced players. This was not the reason.”
“Who was the most experienced player for us in the week? Tosin. Did he play good? So it is not about experience.”
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