Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca has backed his players to start delivering in the final third despite their recent woes in front of goal.
The Blues went into Sunday’s Premier League fixture with Brentford looking to build on the 1-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur earlier in the week.
However, Chelsea would go on to play out a goalless draw with their West London neighbours, failing to net from their 21 shots with just five being on target.
As a result, Maresca’s side have netted just five times during their last six games in all competitions, also failing to net more than once in any of their most recent five encounters.
Nevertheless, with Chelsea still possessing a strong attacking record in general during 2024-25, Maresca has taken the stance that their fortunes will soon improve.
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What has Maresca had to say?
Speaking at his post-match press conference, Maresca pointed to Chelsea having still scored 54 goals from their 31 Premier League games – the fifth-best return in the division – as a reason to defend their recent run.
The Italian told reporters, as quoted by football.london: “It will be very important to get some more goals from the ones at front. But again, I think we are three or four scoring goals over the Premier League. So I don’t have the feeling that this team need to score more goals. And also when we don’t score likes today, we shot more than 20 times.
“So I think the question is for sure we want more goals from the players at front, even from set pieces in general, we want to score more goals. But I don’t think it’s the reason why.
“I don’t think it’s a problem in terms of we are top three, top four in terms of scoring goal. We create chances every game. Probably we struggle to create chances in one or two games.
“But the reason why was also because we play without a nine. If you remember the last four or five games ago, we struggled to create chances, but it’s also normal. Now with Nico [Jackson] back, I think we are creating, but at the same time we are scoring goals and hopefully when you shot more than 20 times, hopefully next time we can score. Sometimes you need two shots and you score. It’s like this.”
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What next for Chelsea?
Maresca made five changes to his Chelsea XI for the game at the Gtech Community Stadium courtesy of the upcoming trip to Poland to face Legia Warsaw in the first leg of their Conference League quarter-final.
Cole Palmer and Nicolas Jackson were among those introduced at half time or afterwards in a bid to manage their fitness after recent injuries.
Chelsea welcome Ipswich Town to Stamford Bridge three days later as they bid to remain in control of their own fate when it comes to achieving Champions League qualification through their position in the Premier League table.
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