Maresca believes Fulham's excellent performance is not accidental and urges Chelsea to be cautious
2025-08-30 02:36
Chelsea will host Fulham at Stamford Bridge in the third round of the 2025/26 Premier League season. Maresca stated at a press conference that Fulham's impressive performance was no accident and urged his team to remain vigilant in the match.
With goals from Joao Pedro, Pedro Neto, Enzo, Caicedo and Chalobah, Chelsea beat West Ham 5-1 in the last round of the Premier League.
As for Fulham, Marco Silva's team drew 1-1 with Manchester United in the last round of the league, and eliminated Bristol City 2-0 in the English League Cup earlier. The overall morale is still high.
Chelsea manager Maresca said, "Fulham is very stable, well-organized, plays beautiful football and is very strong. It is definitely not accidental that they can achieve such results. Fulham broke their record in the Premier League points last season, which fully demonstrates how strong Marco Silva and the players are. This game is the same as in the past, and we must be careful in dealing with it."
"We were the team that made the most changes last season, so I won't ask for two players to play together all the time. I'm always looking for different solutions, and Joao Pedro and Liam Delap can certainly play at the same time, but it depends on the game plan, so we'll see."
In addition, after the match against Fulham, there will be an international match day, and some Chelsea players will also represent the national team.
Maresca said: "We will have a holiday, especially for some players. This is a good time for us, and those players who did not travel with the national team need to recover well. But this is not a vacation, what we need is to restore energy."
