Enzo Maresca was delighted to see his team selection pay off against Burnley at the start of a big week for Chelsea.
Maresca made four changes from the win over Wolves, including leaving star midfielder Moises Caicedo on the bench after his taxing international break with Ecuador, but it did not cost the Blues as they ran out 2-0 winners at Turf Moor.
Pedro Neto scored the opening goal with a brilliant diving header in the first half, while Enzo Fernandez made sure of the points with a late second on the break.
Maresca said: “It was a tough game for many reasons – after the international break, 12 o’clock in the morning, barely awake, this type of pitch, also we need to manage players, so it was a very tricky game.
“The way the players competed, another clean sheet – they had just one important chance in the second half. We conceded some chaos inside the box, but it’s part of the game. Overall I think we deserved to win the game and we are happy.”
As well as resting Caicedo and Wesley Fofana, Maresca withdrew captain Reece James at half-time.
“The idea was especially to manage Reece, this is the reason why he played 45 minutes, it was planned,” added the Chelsea boss.
“Then the rest, Pedro and Enzo, they had a good international break in terms of recovering energy and recovering also from the injury, and the rest I think they were good.”
Chelsea now return to London to prepare for home matches against Barcelona on Tuesday and Arsenal next weekend as they look to build on a run of eight wins from 10 games in all competitions.
“We are confident, we are doing well,” said Maresca. “Today we could have done many, many things better for sure, but it was important to win the game. We are confident and we are ready to prepare for Tuesday and Sunday.”
It is three defeats in a row for Burnley, who started the game strongly but created very few meaningful opportunities.
Nevertheless, boss Scott Parker was happy with the efforts of his men, saying: “My overall feeling is very, very pleased with the performance.
“I say that lightly because obviously we’ve not got anything out of the game, but the first half I thought we were brilliant.
“We were playing against a huge quality team here in Chelsea that at any moment can really hurt teams and I think you’ve seen that over the course of the season.
“The slight critical edge is maybe those half-chances we have in the first half, maybe one goes in or the final little bit of detail.”
Parker felt his side could have had a first-half penalty after Trevoh Chalobah handled what appeared to be a goal-kick from Robert Sanchez in an incident reminiscent of the one that saw Tyrone Mings penalised for Aston Villa last season.
“At the time I didn’t even notice,” admitted Parker. “I have just seen it back, it does look like a penalty.
“The ball’s live, the keeper’s rolled it. I’m not sitting here being critical, but I suppose that is why we’ve got VAR. I don’t know whether they looked at it. It’s one of those things.”
