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Enzo Maresca will hold talks with Alejandro Garnacho before deciding whether he's in the right headspace to inflict more misery on former club Manchester United.
The ex-Red Devils winger swapped Old Trafford for Stamford Bridge in the latter stages of the summer transfer window with the two clubs reaching an agreement on a £40million fixed fee. Garnacho has featured twice for Chelsea since signing - both of them being second-half cameos in the past week - and is under Maresca's consideration to feature in Manchester this evening.
"Probably it is something that we have to think about," said Maresca, when asked about the narrative surrounding Garnacho's return to Old Trafford. "First of all, because he is young, so you don't know how he can react. But also in case we decide to start with him, I will have a chat with him to ask also how he feels about that."
Whether or not returning to a former club so shortly after leaving can be a useful tool or not, Maresca is unsure at this point, as he referenced Jadon Sancho, who spent last season on loan at Stamford Bridge.
"It can be in both ways. It can be in both ways, but I think we have also another similar case, like Jadon [Sancho] last year, that for different reasons struggled," the Chelsea head coach added. "Then he joined us for one season, it was good, he helped us to achieve our target.
"Overall, I think Jadon had a good season with us and hopefully Ale Garnacho can have the same."
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Garnacho was bright when coming on at Brentford last weekend, with the Argentine playing a big role in Moises Caicedo's goal at the Gtech Community Stadium. However, Garnacho lost his man for the Bees' equaliser in stoppage time, with Fabio Carvalho evading the new Chelsea signing and tapping the ball in at the far post.
Maresca explained how Garnacho still needs time to adapt to the way he wants him to play, both on and off the ball, but the Chelsea head coach wants to see an improvement. He said: "It's something that we said many times, players need time to adapt.
"When we conceded the second goal against Brentford, two or three minutes before we conceded exactly the same throw-in and exactly the same chance and the player behind Garnacho was alone again. So it happened twice, not only one time, but it is a process, when a player joins a new club, to understand we work on different things."
Chelsea have a torrid record in recent times at Old Trafford. To find the Blues’ last victory on the red half of Manchester, you would have to rewind to May 2013 when David Cameron was the UK’s Prime Minister, Daft Punk had a chart-topping single in 'Get Lucky' and Sir Alex Ferguson won his 13th - and final - Premier League title with Man United.
Chelsea have not enjoyed their trips to United's turf since then. The Blues have played 11 games at United’s home since May 2013, but have not come out on top in a single one. In fact, the Blues’ Old Trafford hoodoo stretches back even further than that. The west Londoners have won just six of their 33 Premier League visits to the red half of Manchester - their lowest win rate at any ground they have visited 10 or more times in the top-flight.
Given United's slow start to the season, many are seeing this as the best time for Chelsea to end such a run, but Maresca very much disagrees.
"I don't think that now is the right moment or next year will be the right moment or last year was the right moment," Maresca explained. "It's always difficult. It's a difficult team, it's a difficult stadium."
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