17 hours ago
5
Enzo Maresca was sent off among the chaos of Chelsea's last-minute winner in the Premier League against Liverpool. With the game finely poised at 1-1, Estevao Willian stole the headlines as he grabbed the winner in added time.
The Blues started better than the champions and were duly rewarded for that when Moises Caicedo scored a sensational opener. Liverpool fought back in the second half though, and equalised when Cody Gakpo slammed home after an excellent touch by Alexander Isak.
Both sides pushed for what would be a winner and it was the hosts that found the breakthrough well into the seven minutes of stoppage time. A ball across the box by Marc Cucurella was met perfectly by Estevao and he had the simplest of finishes.
As the Brazil international ran off towards the crowd in order to celebrate, Maresca could be seen running to join the celebrations. Having left his technical area, the Chelsea boss was shown a second yellow card with his first caution coming after he was a tad overzealous in appeals for a penalty earlier on.
The red card will see him serve a touchline suspension after the October international break when Chelsea take on Nottingham Forest at the City Ground, but it is unlikely Maresca will care too much right now after such an impressive performance from his side.
Following two consecutive Premier League defeats, the three points comes as a huge boost for Maresca with Chelsea moving up to sixth.
The two defenders join Tosin Adarabioyo, Levi Colwill, Wesley Fofana, and Trevoh Chalobah in being absent, though the latter duo are expected back in two weeks time. One person that will be unable to impact proceedings is of course Maresca after he was shown two yellow cards.
Cole Palmer has missed Chelsea's last two games and while there is hope he could be back after the two-week domestic pause, the latest update from Maresca suggests otherwise.
"Cole is still out," he admitted ahead of the game. "I don't have any updates at the moment. We have a meeting this week to see how he is, and we will then decide [whether he can return after the international break]."
One fitness positive was the Romeo Lavia's performance off the bench after a challenging few years with injury issues. Joao Pedro was also managed carefully in the game as he was replaced by Marc Guiu with 20 or so minute to play.
The summer signing will also remain at Cobham to further recover from the issue that has been plaguing him over the last few months.
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