Enzo Maresca explains Cole Palmer snub vs Newcastle despite Chelsea exiting Carabao Cup
Cole Palmer remained an unused substitute as Chelsea were knocked out of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night.
The 22-year-old watched on from the bench at St. James' Park and was unable to influence Chelsea's 2-0 defeat to Newcastle, putting them out of this year's competition.
Palmer was one of the players who were dropped by Maresca, who made 11 changes to the side that beat Newcastle on Sunday in the Premier League at Stamford Bridge, Mykhailo Mudryk, who was Chelsea's best attacker, Joao Felix and Christopher Nkunku led the line on Tyneside, however failed to put the ball in the back of the net.
Noni Madueke was introduced in the second-half to try get Chelsea back in the game, however no breakthrough could be found to give the visitors a glimmer of hope heading into the closing stages.
It was a night where Newcastle punished Chelsea's mistakes and the Blues were unable to provide any response. Maresca insisted Chelsea performed well for the most part, however acknowledges the result is what will be looked at.
"I think it worked if we analysed the performance," said Maresca post-match. "If we analysed the result, it didn't work. For 20 minutes until their goal, we were in control of the game. In the last 10 minutes of the first-half, we had two clear cut chances but didn't score and in the second-half, we were in control of the game. We lost the goal because of 10 minutes. For the rest, we were quite good.
Palmer was expected to be brought on should Chelsea be losing, which they were, at some point during the match. However, that turned out not to be the case and he was left to warm the bench for the entire 90 minutes. But why?
Maresca explained his decision to leave the England international on the bench and revealed it was down to Felix and Nkunku as to why he was unused on Wednesday night.
"Joao and Christo were doing very good," Maresca told reporters. "The reason why (Palmer travelled to Newcastle) was because in case we needed Cole but they were doing well so we didn't need to change."
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