Maresca: Chelsea stronger with Lavia back and Palmer scoring again
Enzo Maresca felt Romeo Lavia and Cole Palmer underlined their importance to Chelsea after they played starring roles in the 3-1 victory over Liverpool.
The result massively boosted the Blues’ hopes of securing a Champions League spot.
Palmer converted a penalty in the final seconds to break his 18-game goal drought, while Lavia dominated in midfield against the recently-crowned Premier League champions.
The 21-year-old has only featured 14 domestic games this season, having been blighted by injury.
Against Liverpool, Lavia impressed by completing all 23 of the passes he attempted, and he also made five ball recoveries and won four duels before receiving a standing ovation from the fans.
“You can see that we are a better team with Romeo,” boss Maresca said.
“Unfortunately, he has been injured for most of the season.
“The difference between us and other clubs is we had many important players that have been injured. Romeo is one of them, no doubt Wes Fofana is another one.
“We had Nicolas Jackson out for two months, but in terms of Romeo, he showed again today how important he is for the team.
“We saw Cole day-by-day on the training ground, and he’s exactly the same way – scoring goals, happy, enjoying the sessions.
“When he does not score a goal he’s not happy, and the reason why is because he wants to help the team and the club to reach something important.
“I didn’t see Cole different from two months ago, three months ago. I’ve said many times he scored 14 goals for us in 20 Premier League games, but unfortunately he didn’t score many goals in the last part of the season.
“Now we have three more (Premier League) games, we also have a second leg (in Europe), and hopefully he can help us until the end.”
Maresca added that Palmer’s return to form has come at an “important” time.
His performance against Liverpool helped Chelsea pick up three points that ensure they go into next Sunday’s clash with fourth-placed Newcastle level on points with the Magpies, trailing in the table only on goals scored.
Maresca continued: “If we want to reach the Champions League, we need Nico (Jackson) and Cole to score.
“Against Everton, (Jackson) gave us three points. Cole scored today. If we want to be there and we want to finish top five, we need Cole and Nico goals, and hopefully they can score to the end.
“Cole is the kind of player that can do things that no-one expects. When he has the ball, I expect anything can happen because he can do anything.”
