Maresca says ‘no panic’ at Chelsea despite mini-slump

Enzo Maresca says there is “no reason to panic” over Chelsea’s mini-slump, highlighting the impact of a series of red cards as he prepares to welcome Jose Mourinho back to Stamford Bridge.

The Blues, who host Benfica in the Champions League on Tuesday, started the season on a high after winning the Club World Cup in July.

But they have lost three of their past four matches in all competitions and badly need a win against the Portuguese side at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday to kick-start their European campaign.

Maresca knows Chelsea will have to cut out their disciplinary problems after his team were reduced to 10 men in their Premier League defeats by Manchester United and Brighton.

They also lost their opening Champions League match against Bayern Munich.

But Maresca, in his second season at Stamford Bridge, was relaxed about the poor run at his pre-match press conference on Monday.

The Italian pointed out that in four of their past five defeats Chelsea have had a player dismissed.

Maresca admitted he could have made better decisions to cope with the sendings-off against United and Brighton.

But he said that the only game his team had lost when they had 11 players on the pitch was the 3-1 defeat at German champions Bayern earlier this month.

“For me personally there is not any reason that we need to create panic, knowing that football, you know better than me, football is a crazy world,” he said.

“If you lost five games in six months and you need to say things to defend yourself, that means that it’s a crazy world. 

“I don’t think we need to defend ourselves in this moment because the reality is that I have a very good feeling with the squad we have.”

Maresca said it would be an “absolute honour” to face Mourinho at Stamford Bridge.

The Portuguese, 62, was named as Benfica’s new coach earlier this month, just weeks after being sacked by Turkish side Fenerbahce.

Mourinho won three Premier League titles and other silverware during two spells with Chelsea, helping transform the club into a trophy-winning force.

Moises Caicedo, Andrey Santos and Joao Pedro all picked up knocks during Saturday’s defeat to Brighton and will be assessed ahead of the Benfica match.