Enzo Maresca pokes fun at Marc Cucurella slip with title race admission

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca insisted that his side can’t challenge for the Premier League title as the likes of Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester City will not slip like Marc Cucurella.

The enigmatic Chelsea full-back was left with his face planted on the turf twice inside the opening 11 minutes of Sunday’s thrilling clash at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. On each occasion that Cucurella lost his footing, Spurs scored, first taking the lead through Dominic Solanke before Dejan Kulusevski doubled the hosts’ deserved advantage.

After the second goal, Cucurella scurried across to the touchline to remonstrate with the Chelsea bench, flapping his arms around in a rage while changing his boots.

The Blues impressively romped back to ultimately win 4-3. That victory propelled Chelsea into second place above Arsenal, just four points behind Liverpool while Manchester City are back in fourth. Despite this advantageous position and the red-hot form of his side, Maresca would not accept any title talk. “Arsenal, City and Liverpool probably don’t slide – like Cucurella did,” the Italian coach mischievously pointed out.

“To be serious, we are not ready,” Maresca continued. “We are far from these teams, but we focus on day-by-day and trying to improve the team. The plan or the idea is to not let the players slow down. They cannot drop because they know another player is waiting to come in.”

Chelsea’s pessimistic boss had previously cited the youthful inexperience of his squad as the key factor undermining their title aspirations.

On Sunday, Cucurella’s boots threatened to be the derailing element for Chelsea. When asked about the Spaniard’s footwear foibles, Maresca shrugged: “That’s a question for him. I don’t know. It can happen. Unfortunately, it happened twice to the same player, but it can happen.”

Jadon Sancho halved Tottenham’s early two-goal lead in the first half, picking out the bottom corner after receiving a pass from Cucurella’s new boots. Post-game, the English winger joked: “They’re going in the bin after this game. After the mistakes, I thought he played fantastic. We believe in Cucu.”

Shortly after the final whistle, Cucurella posted an image on social media showing that those first-half boots had found their way into the bin.

READ THE LATEST CHELSEA NEWS, TRANSFER RUMOURS & GOSSIP