Maresca admits Chelsea missed Caicedo in defeat at Leeds

Enzo Maresca admitted Chelsea missed Moises Caicedo in their 3-1 defeat at Leeds.

Caicedo sat out the first game of a three-match suspension, having been sent off during the draw with Arsenal at the weekend.

The Blues struggled without him, particularly during a first half in which the home side scored twice.

Head coach Maresca said: “We missed Moi tonight. We’re going to miss Moi in the next game. He’s an important player.

“Moi is a player that for us is an important player for any team in the world, because he’s top.”

It was a chastening night for Chelsea – and for their exciting Brazilian youngster Estevao.

The teenager has been electrifying, but struggled this time and was replaced at the interval. He had picked up a yellow card and made very little impact.

Maresca said: “I think the feeling with Estevao was a little bit ‘welcome to the Premier League, welcome to Leeds’.

“He was on a yellow card. Sometimes when you are 18, you struggle to manage emotion, so it was better to change him and to avoid a red card.”

The result meant Chelsea dropped to fourth place in the Premier League table, nine points behind leaders Arsenal.

Their performance was their worst for some time, and Maresca conceded: “They were better than us in all aspects and they deserved to win the game.

“There is nothing we can take from this game. The only thing we can do is to try and understand what we did and then reset.”