Why 'no one in Chelsea squad can sleep' after honest Enzo Maresca statement
Pedro Neto has admitted "no one can sleep" in the Chelsea squad due to the immense competition for places in the team.
The 24-year-old signed for the Blues in the summer for around £54million from Wolves and is fighting for a regular starting spot in Enzo Maresca's line-up. However, with Noni Madueke starting the season really well, and the likes of Jadon Sancho and Mykhailo Mudryk options on the left wing, it leaves some seriously talented players fighting for a couple of spots.
Neto, though, made a real claim for the right wing spot on Tuesday night as he scored his first goal for Chelsea in the 5-0 win over Barrow in the Carabao Cup third round. After a first half where he showed glimpses of his ability, Neto was prominent in everything positive for the Blues at the beginning of the second half before he was taken off on 63 minutes.
"With the amount of quality that we have here, no one can sleep," Neto explained at Stamford Bridge. "As the coach has said, 'everyone will not play every game'. So we have to work hard and make for ourselves and continue to do it every weekend, every training session, every game. It's the mentality that I hope can take us to the top."
The Portugal international continued: "Everyone has to work hard. When you arrive at a big club, it is a new adaptation.
"Maybe in Wolverhampton, I was going to play maybe 90% of the games. Here I have to work even more or maybe I'll not play because the coach will rotate the players. It makes you play even better because you know that you have to work. But even at Wolverhampton, if I was playing 90% of the games, I would go into every training session to be the best."
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Neto represented Portugal in the Euros over the summer, where the winger featured three times in the competition before his country were knocked out at the quarter-final stage. He then returned to Wolves for pre-season but featured just once, a 22-minute cameo against RB Leipzig.
Chelsea then announced the signing of Neto on August 11 but by then the squad had already returned from their pre-season tour of the United States. He is still looking to increase his fitness levels as the fixture schedule continues to heat up but he is settling in well within the squad.
"I continue to work," Neto said on his fitness. "I continue to work on my confidence, on my football, on the adaptation, and I hope to be [fully fit] as soon as I can.
"I'm settling in really good. I needed time. I needed the pre-season. I went to the European Championship without playing many games.
"But I am here. I am working hard to get into my best shape, and I will continue to work to give happiness to this club and to bring this club to where it deserves to be."