Enzo Maresca offered solution to 'really negative' Chelsea decision that backfired at Man Utd

Enzo Maresca should have kept Pedro Neto on if he was planning to take Cole Palmer off during the first half of Chelsea's defeat at Manchester United, according to former Liverpool midfielder Danny Murphy.

The Blues travelled to Old Trafford searching for their first win there for 12 years, but that task became all the more difficult when Robert Sanchez was sent off in the fifth minute.

The Spaniard hacked down Bryan Mbeumo, who was steaming through on goal, and referee Peter Bankes was in no hesitation but to send him off.

In response to Sanchez's dismissal, Maresca made a double substitution, taking off BOTH of his wingers. Indeed, Estevao and Pedro Neto were both taken off for substitute goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen and Tosin Adarabioyo.

After United made it 1-0 through a close-range finish from Bruno Fernandes, Maresca made another defensive-minded change with Cole Palmer, who looked to be carrying an injury, being replaced by Andrey Santos.

It was an alteration that didn't work, as Casemiro doubled United's advantage in the 37th minute before he was shown a red card himself for picking up a second bookable offence.

That meant that it was 10 against 10 for the whole second half, but due to Maresca hauling off three of his four attackers within the first 21 minutes, it made Chelsea's task of recovering a 2-0 lead all-but impossible.

Although Trevoh Chalobah pulled one back late on, it proved to be too little too late as Chelsea suffered a 2-1 defeat - their first Premier League loss this season - and continued their retched recent run in Manchester.

Delivering his assessment of Chelsea's performance on Match of the Day, Murphy offered a word of advice for Maresca about how he could have managed the situation better.

Murphy said: I think bringing an extra defender on was understandable, taking off an attacker, but then a few minutes later and Palmer is off once they're 1-0 down.

"We felt that Neto and Cole Palmer coming off was a really negative move.

"Ok we trust his word that he's struggling with a bit of an injury, but then maybe bring him off at the beginning and leave Neto on for his pace because even when they got level men in the second-half they didn't have that much of a threat, only Joao Pedro had that forward thinking mentality."

Explaining why he decided to take off Neto and Estevao so early on, Maresca said in his post-match press conference: "The reason why we changed Pedro [Neto] and Estevao [Willian] was because they attack with the five players always, and we defend with the four, and we can defend with the four when we are 11 vs 11, but 11 against them, I think we need to defend on the width, so we decided to go with the back five, this is the reason why."

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