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Chelsea welcome Bournemouth to Stamford Bridge on Tuesday night as the Blues look to put things right following Saturday evening's disappointing defeat at home to Aston Villa
Enzo Maresca believes Chelsea are capable of finishing in the top four but is trying to understand why his side are struggling to manage matches at home.
The Blues' 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge was the fourth time they have dropped points from a winning position in their first nine home matches of this Premier League season. Chelsea were dominant in the first-half on Saturday evening but a change in shape from Unai Emery saw Villa snatch control of the game.
The Blues were unable to attack with the same venom in the second period, while Villa looked a completely different side with Ollie Watkins' double securing a crucial three points for the unlikely title challengers. With Chelsea's squad one of the youngest in the Premier League, a lack of experience in their ranks seems the obvious reason why they are struggling to control these sorts of matches beyond 45 minutes, but Maresca is trying to find out the root of the problem.
"Again, I don’t know," replied the Chelsea boss when asked if a lack of experience is the reason. "It's just a matter to understand the reason why, because I don’t think it’s random, when something continues to happen, it's not random.
"So we need to understand why, no matter if we are winning, drawing or losing, we concede a goal, we lose a little bit of control. So we need to understand the reason why."
Villa are now 10 points ahead of Chelsea after Saturday's win and going into matchday 19 of the Premier League season, Liverpool, who are now seven matches unbeaten in all competitions, are ahead of the Blues in the table. Chelsea cannot afford to lose any more ground on the top four with Bournemouth, who played out a goalless draw with the Blues earlier in the month, the visitors to Stamford Bridge on Tuesday evening.
"In this moment, it is the target," Maresca said on qualifying for the Champions League again. "I think tonight's game [Saturday night] does not reflect the 10 points difference between us and Villa, to be honest.
"So we need to be confident and we need to think that hopefully we can go close again to the ones that are ahead of us."
Cole Palmer and Reece James will both be assessed ahead of the visit of Bournemouth to west London with the former playing over 70 minutes at the weekend and the latter completing the full 90 at Stamford Bridge. Wesley Fofana is expected to come back into the defence after sitting out of the defeat to Villa as his work load continues to be managed, while Marc Cucurella is a doubt after coming off due to some pain in his hamstring at the weekend.
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