Enzo Maresca follows Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool approach to excuse Chelsea draw

Enzo Maresca came up with a bizarre excuse after seeing Chelsea settle for a draw at Brentford with the Italian coming up with the same reason that Jurgen Klopp once used

Enzo Maresca blamed the SUN as Chelsea dropped points at Brentford on Sunday. The Blues made the short trip to their west London rivals but were held to a goalless draw by the Bees.

None of the top five in the Premier League secured victory over the weekend and Chelsea’s draw came after their manager took a risk by resting several of his top players – Cole Palmer among them. The visitors lacked a cutting-edge in attack, but Maresca chose to blame the weather rather than his frontmen.

It was a bright day in Brentford with the Sunday shining and the Italian cited that among his excuses, claiming it also contributed to the pitch being dry.

He said: “I think overall we played a good game. We prepared the game in the way the game was, in terms of starting one way and finishing the other way. We played Thursday night, demanding game, 24 hours less than them. Tricky stadium, tricky game. Sunny day, the pitch was dry. They tried to kill the tempo of the game, so for me it was a complete game.

“But overall, as I said, I think we did enough to win the game. We shot more than 20 times and probably the only thing we missed has been the goal, but overall happy with the performance.”

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The draw means that the battle for the top five, with fifth spot likely to result in Champions League football next season, is even more congested. Chelsea in fourth are separated from eighth-place Fulham by just five points with seven games of the campaign remaining.

Maresca’s excuse is nothing new for managers, particularly when it comes to playing games in west London. Several years ago Jurgen Klopp blamed a dry pitch on a hot day when Liverpool headed to Craven Cottage, only to leave with a share of spoils against Fulham.

He said: “We got a point from a really bad game from my side so now it’s a question of ‘How can that happen?’ The attitude was not right in the beginning and then we wanted to fight back but it wasn’t easy any more. The pitch was dry, stuff like this, we played really in their cards most of the time.”

Throughout his time in England the ex-Liverpool boss came up with some interesting reasons for his side not picking up points. After a Carabao Cup loss to Southampton early in his tenure he blamed the wind whilst he also bemoaned the snow on other occasions.

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