- Man City concluded their American pre-season tour with a 4-2 win over Chelsea
- But alarm bells may be ringing for Enzo Maresca after his team’s performance
- The Italian worked under Guardiola during City’s treble triumph in 2022-23
Pep Guardiola defended Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea pre-season mistakes, blaming the state of the pitch in the United States for the setbacks.
Chelsea lost 4-2 to Manchester City at the Ohio Stadium, with all three of Erling Haaland’s goals coming after the Blues lost the ball while attempting to play from the back. Maresca’s men also made similar blunders in their friendlies against Wrexham and Celtic.
Yet Guardiola was ready to defend his former assistant after their clash, telling reporters: “I want to say something. It happened because of the circumstances on the pitch. Under normal circumstances it wouldn’t happen. At Stamford Bridge it wouldn’t happen. That’s for sure.
“Secondly, I saw what Enzo wants to do and I like that. I don’t give a compliment because he is my friend and he helped me for the treble year. But I saw a lot of things today that I know he will do. If you expect them to win the Champions League after two weeks without training properly? No. I am a big fan of his and I know he will do well.
“It will be harder for us to get a result at Stamford Bridge. It’s always difficult there. He did a great job at Leicester and he will do it here with an unbelievable squad. It will be a good season for him.”
Pep Guardiola (right) defended his former assistant Enzo Maresca (left) after their struggles from the back in pre-season
Chelsea suffered their second defeat in the United States after a resounding 4-2 defeat to Man City
Erling Haaland helped himself to a hat-trick after mistakes from the Chelsea defender in Ohio
Chelsea conceded twice in the space of five minutes, both times after attempting to pass from the back. Haaland secured his hat-trick in the second half as the Blues again gave the ball away from their defensive third.
Instead of staying in Columbus, Chelsea’s squad flew to Atlanta after this friendly to use the training facilities there, before heading to Charlotte to face Real Madrid on Tuesday.
Maresca was less inclined to use the pitch as an excuse, but did say: ‘The pitch doesn’t help. With the way we like to play, the pitch has to be fast, but it slowed it down.
“We have to learn things. Probably more than the goals we conceded, we have to learn that you can’t concede one and then two minutes later you concede another one. That’s something I just said to the players; we have to learn. If we concede one, we have to get stronger so we don’t concede another one.”