Enzo Maresca responds to angry Noni Madueke reaction after Chelsea change against Arsenal

Enzo Maresca insists he has no problem with Noni Madueke’s reaction to being substituted during Chelsea’s 1-1 draw with Arsenal.

Madueke was replaced by Mykhailo Mudryk midway through the second-half and was visibly disgruntled by the decision, heading straight down the Stamford Bridge tunnel.

Maresca’s change, though, was vindicated in emphatic fashion, with Pedro Neto switching to the right-wing, from where he fired a superb equalising goal.

“When you change a player, they are never happy,” Maresca said.

“Probably the only way to be happy is like the Wolves game, when he scored a hat-trick and we changed him, so he was happy.

“It’s not only about Noni, it’s about all the players. It’s a good thing because they want to be there until the end.

“But in that moment we saw it in a different way. We thought Pedro, against [Jurrien] Timber, could be a bit more aggressive, and with Micha [Mykhailo Mudryk] also. It was a tactical decision, no more than that.”

Meanwhile, it is not yet clear whether Cole Palmer will be fit to join up with the England squad on Monday ahead of Nations League games against Greece and Republic of Ireland.

Palmer came through 90 minutes of Sunday’s game, but had been a doubt in the build-up following a poor tackle by Lisandro Martinez during the previous weekend’s draw with Manchester United.

“I don’t think we took any risks but for sure, he was a doubt until the end,” Maresca explained.

“His performance was very good. In the first ten minutes, we connected from [Levi] Colwill to him three or four times. Then they adjusted and Thomas Partey was marking him man-to-man so it’s very difficult in that case.

“It’s painful now but it doesn’t look something important.”