Enzo Maresca has just spoken to Sky Sports after Chelsea’s win over Tottenham at White Hart Lane, where he cracked a joke about the Marc Cucurella slips which had almost cost his team the game.
Twice in the opening ten minutes the Spaniard lost his footing, and twice Spurs scored. It felt like the maddest part of the game – but things didn’t really slow down from there.
Asked whether his team were in the title race, once again the coach tried to say no and deflect the question, this time making a joke about his full back:
“Probably Arsenal and Liverpool and Man City they won’t slide like Cucurella did… but seriously. For me we are not ready. We are far from these teams. But we are focused on the day by day, improve the team, improve the players. And play the games. No more than that.”
We couldn’t even make a weak laugh at that one… but it’s nice that the Italian coach is showing a little more personality and looking totally comfortable in the job already.
He can work on his joke writing later.
As for his continued claim that we’re not in the title race – we agree those teams should be a step above us – but if we keep winning, we’ll have to reconsider that view at some point very soon.
You can see the manager speaking in the clip embedded here
"Arsenal, Man City & Liverpool wouldn't slide like Cucurella did!"
Enzo Maresca continues to insist that Chelsea are far from being able to challenge for the Premier League title 🔵🏆 pic.twitter.com/tVdhCODdnt
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) December 8, 2024
Cucurella also jokes about double slip which almost cost his team
Cucurella also addressed the issue in a humorous way in his post after the game:
It almost slipped away…but proud of the amazing team effort to turn things around.
London is BLUE! 💙 pic.twitter.com/tdy3ptPszi
— Marc Cucurella (@cucurella3) December 8, 2024
We’re glad we can all laugh about it now. We were fuming at the time. We got away with it this time, but we hope everyone is a little more switched on next time – or it could cost us.
