After Chelsea lost a late equaliser in a dismal 1-1 Premier League tie at Crystal Palace on Saturday, boss Enzo Maresca claimed his team has to be more clinical.
Before Jean-Philippe Mateta’s late equaliser for the home team, Cole Palmer handed Chelsea a well-earned lead in the first half, but he and Nicolas Jackson missed good chances to end the match.
In a four-game losing streak, Chelsea has only gained two points, putting them nine points behind leaders Liverpool, who have two games remaining, and behind them in a tight race for Champions League spots.
Maresca, who had frequently dismissed Chelsea’s chances of winning the title, was largely satisfied with a performance that he believed should have given his team all three points.
“Probably we did enough to win the game today,” Maresca told reporters.
“Between the first half and second half, I think we created chances enough to win the game.
“But in football you need to be clinical, otherwise the game is always open.”
The amount of opportunities Chelsea produced, as well as their performance in Monday’s 2-0 loss to Ipswich Town, gave Maresca hope, he claimed.
“I always said that the important thing is to create chances, because if you create chances it means that you are doing the right things,” he said.
“Sometimes you create and you score.
“Sometimes you create one chance and you score one. And sometimes you need to create 10 to score two.”
Joshua Acheampong, an 18-year-old defender who appeared confident in his maiden Premier League start, was another player Maresca was full of praise for.
“All the players for me, they were good today.
“But if I have to decide one, I think for sure Josh was our best player because of (his) age, because it was the first game (starting in the league).
“Josh, for me, can be a top player for this club. But he needs the right path, the right moment.
“With young players you have to decide in which moment and we decided today because we saw that he is ready. Today I think he showed how good he is.”
