“100%” – Maresca promises starts this week to Chelsea’s top academy talent

It was not a nice press conference today for Chelsea fans. The news that Wesley Fofana has a concussion and that Tosin Adarabioyo has a calf problem means that Enzo Maresca’s options at centre back are very limited.

With Benoit Badiashile still not ready to return, Trevoh Chalobah is the only available centre back. Maresca was asked whether this meant a chance for Josh Acheampong at centre back.

Defensive Maresca claims he “always showed trust” in defender

Josh Acheampong battles for the ball. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

In his customary defensive style, the manager claimed that he had always been an Acheampong fan:

“I already showed trust and confidence in Josh Acheampong last year when he played games in the Premier League,” the manager said.

“Because last year if you remember when we played Josh Acheampong against Palace, at home against Bournemouth, the reason why was not because we didn’t have any central defenders. I think Tosin was available, Benoit was available. We trust Josh, not just because of the injury situation, so nothing changed with Josh. We trust Josh 100%. He was ill this week, he had the first session yesterday with us.

We’ve seen plenty of other evidence – like Malo Gusto playing in roles which don’t suit him and when out of form – to say that Maresca doesn’t really trust Josh. But it does seem like finally the coach has no other option and will have to use Acheampong now.

Maresca determined to “find solutions”

With injuries through the team stacking up, Maresca insisted that there was no panic, and his job was just to “find solutions” to all the issues using the squad:

“Part of my job is also to find solutions when we have some problems in terms of numbers. As I said last year, I tried to do the same with number 9 when Nicolas was injured, when Guiu was injured, we tried with Pedro, we tried with Ty. I will try to find solutions also in this moment with the central defenders.”