Enzo Maresca skips Chelsea press conference as Willy Caballero reacts to Cole Palmer boos

Enzo Maresca was feeling unwell and was forced to skip his media duties, so his assistant Willy Caballero took his post-match presser

Willy Caballero has just wrapped up the post-match press conference after Chelsea's 2-2 draw with Bournemouth at Stamford Bridge.

A thrilling first-half saw four goals shared equally in west London, but the second period was slightly less entertaining. It means the Blues finishing December with just six points from a possible 18 in the Premier League.

Enzo Maresca was feeling unwell and was forced to skip his media duties, so his assistant Caballero took his post-match presser. Here is every word the Chelsea assistant said...

What did you make of that display? You've dropped more points from a winning position. What were you pushing for at the end?

Well, as I said previously, it's a difficult start but we have to deal with that now, we have to improve that and we go the next couple of games and also the whole second half to improve that. In another view, it means that we are creating, we are scoring goals and we are opening the scoring sometimes, which is good, but we need to manage and find a way to win those points, kill those games because they are the games that we are going to need to achieve our target.

It's not one thing that's the problem, it's kind of in some games it's maybe not taking the chances, in other games maybe defensive mistakes, is it?

Yeah, it's part of it, it's what happens in any single game. Sometimes it's details, sometimes it's because the opponent finds a way to break through or to create those chances, but we need to create that kind of, not create, we need to find that kind of mentality to not let them find a way to make us lose those kind of games because we invest a lot. Today it was a really good game in terms of playing, how we played, how we went to the other box. We created many chances and unfortunately we are talking more about that stats than how players like Estevao [played], like Cole [played] so it's like that.

Could you just clarify what's happened to Enzo Maresca?

Yes, he didn't feel well the last two days, he had a bit of a temperature two days ago, he did the last two sessions because he wanted to prepare well the team for this game, but after the game he went to the changing room and he asked me to replace him because he didn't feel well and that's the only thing I can tell you guys.

The decision to take Palmer off was booed. Do supporters need to show more faith in the manager?

Of course any supporter wants to have their best players on the pitch and we want to have the best players on the pitch as well, but Cole is coming from a long injury so in this case we need to find the right substitutions to go for the game and also to take care of the health of our players because we want to have them for the long period and for the rest of the season in every single game.

Moises Caicedo is now suspended for the Manchester City trip, how frustrated are you with that suspension?

Very frustrated because it was the first foul on the game and it was close to us, and we looked at the foul more than once and it doesn't look like a yellow. But it's done now so we're going to miss a very important player but we need to, from now on, start to think who will be the player that replaces Moi and of course it's a big loss but same as when we miss Cole, when we miss Liam [Delap], when we miss any player because all of them are very important for us.

Will you be in charge for the Manchester City game or are you expecting Enzo to be back?

I don't know, I just want to wish for the recovery of Enzo and I believe in one or two days he will be okay.

You're obviously very close with Enzo, how is he handling this difficult run and secondly, in January there are nine games, four competitions, do you guys have to see this as an opportunity to turn it around?

Yes of course, first of all he's dealing well because he's very professional, he invests a lot of hours every single day even though the last two days he was feeling bad. He is an example for me, for all of the staff and yes we got the same amount of number of games in December and we didn't do it as we expected so we go now January to start the year for us as a target to improve and to start to find the points that can make us achieve our targets.

You've conceded four goals now from long throws this season which is the joint worst in the league, why do you think it's become such an issue this season?

It's such an issue because now every single game and every other team has got not just one, sometimes two or three players that can deliver a very long throw. It means that all of the other teams invest a lot in long throws and they create many set pieces about that and it just gives us information that we have to deal quickly because we need to improve in any set pieces. We are unlucky to have [conceded] these four goals [from long throws], probably the day of the Brentford it hurts a lot because it was in the last second and we could have two more points. Today, two in the same way it hurts so we need to correct that and we need to improve because there are many things that happen there. Sometimes it's how they move, how they go for the first contact but even though the second goal today was a deflection from our own players so there are many details that sometimes are very difficult to deal with in that scenario.