Maresca bemoans Palmer and Jackson’s droughts after poor Chelsea display

Enzo Maresca suggested after Chelsea’s poor display against Legia Warsaw in the Conference League that the form of forwards Cole Palmer and Nicolas Jackson is a major concern.

The Blues, 3-0 up from the first leg went through to the quarter-finals with 4-2 aggregate win after losing 2-1 at Stamford Bridge, where Palmer and Jackson both started the game.

They were ineffective before being substituted and Palmer – prolific before this season’s dip in form – has now not scored in 15 matches, while Jackson has not scored in 12.

“The ones that we are missing, unfortunately they are very easy goals,” head coach Maresca admitted.

Maresca’s side went behind on the night when Tomas Pekhart scored from the penalty spot after being brought down by keeper Filip Jorgensen.

Chelsea, who will play Swedish side Djurgarden in the semis, equalised when Jadon Sancho did well on the right and teed up Marc Cucurella for a simple tap-in.

Cucurella thought he had scored again shortly before half-time, tapping in after being set up by Christopher Nkunku, but the goal was disallowed for offside.

At that stage Chelsea seemed to be in total control of the tie again, but they conceded a second goal early in the second half.

A corner found Claude Goncalves completely unmarked and his tame effort was helped into the net by Steve Kapuadi.

Cucurella’s equaliser was the left-back’s sixth goal of the season.

“At the moment the one who is scoring more goals is Cucu and that is not a good thing because he is not the one that has to score goals,” Maresca said.

“Hopefully very soon Cole and Nico can start to score goals, because they are very important for us.

“The main target was for them to build physical condition, so we decided to use both of them.

“Then, sure, if they are able to score it could be a good boost.”