🗣️ Enzo Maresca on Chelsea’s 3-0 win over @BarcelonaEn [H] in the UEFA Champions League:

🤝 “For me personally it’s a big win, especially because the other team was Barcelona.

“But nothing changes in terms of what team we are, what we can achieve. For sure tonight’s win is important, but no more than that. It’s over, it’s finished, now we focus on the next one which is difficult again.

“We need to keep the momentum because it’s very nice and it’s much easier to recover energy when you win games, for sure.”

🧠 𝐎𝐧 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧:

“Even when it was 11 against 11 I had a good feeling that we had a good level. Barcelona is comfortable when they have the ball, but otherwise they are not so comfortable. We had the ball. We concentrated on ball possession and also circulating the ball.

“For me to have a good formation and good positioning is fundamental. We spent 85 per cent of our training trying to work out how to be aggressive, how to attack our opponent, because as I said @BarcelonaEn is too comfortable when they have the ball. So we needed to take that ball away, always, and circulate it.

“‘And we tried to find opportunities. We scored three and then had three disallowed goals and many more opportunities, so I think we created enough to win the game.”

💪 𝐎𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐭𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭-𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡:

“The feeling was very good, especially because it was at home with our fans.

“It’s always nice to share this kind of moment with them.

“But now, I told the players in the next 48 hours to completely switch off, have a rest, recover their energy, because here on Sunday we have Arsenal. My message after the game was just to recover energy, which in this moment is the most important thing, and then from Friday we start to think about @Arsenal_london.”

(Via ChelseaFC)

#CFC #Chelsea #ChelseaFC

Star status, #UCL approved. 🌟

Our top goalscorers from 25/26 so far. 🔝🎯

#CFCW

Eyes on @Arsenal_london. 👀

UPDATE: Cole Palmer is available to start against Arsenal. Dario Essugo trained this morning for Chelsea for the first time.

(Reported by MrDomSmith)

A former Chelsea employee has pleaded guilty to fraud worth over £200,000 against the club which is alleged to have taken place by dishonestly abusing her position as treasury assistant.

Claire Walsh, who lives less than a mile from Stamford Bridge, worked for Chelsea for over 20 years and, according to her LinkedIn profile, was made the club’s full-time treasury assistant in July 2020.

Ms Walsh appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday accused of committing fraud worth £208,521.65 with an intent to make a gain between June 2019 and October 2023. She pleaded guilty and will be sentenced at Isleworth Crown Court.

It is understood that Chelsea became aware of the alleged offence in spring 2022 and reported the matter to police.

During the short hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, the prosecution said that the amount of money involved took the case into the “A” capability, carrying the starting point of five years imprisonment with a range of three to six years.

The charge against Ms Walsh was listed as “fraud by abuse of position” between June 8 2019 and October 23 2023 and said “while occupying a position, namely assistant treasury manager, in which you were expected to safeguard, or not to act against, the financial interests of Chelsea Football Club, you dishonestly abused that position intending thereby to make a gain, namely obtaining the sum of £208,521.65, for yourself contrary to sections 1 and 4 of the Fraud Act 2006.”

[Matt Law - The Telegraph]

#CFC #Chelsea #ChelseaFC

Congratulations, Malo! 👏

🗣️ Enzo Maresca ahead of @Arsenal_london [H] in the Premier League:

💪 𝐎𝐧 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐧𝐞𝐰𝐬:

“Yes, Cole [Palmer] is available for both [to play and to start].

“We are looking okay [after Barcelona]. Dario Essugo also took part of the session this morning, which is good news too.”

👀 𝐎𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐚𝐥𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐄𝐬𝐭𝐞‌𝐯𝐚‌𝐨:

“Having Cole back is good news and everyone is happy.

“The fans are happy, his team-mates are happy and the most important thing is that Cole is happy [to be back]. Players want to play games, so him being back is a big moment.

“He can help us a lot. He is arguably our best player and we are happy he is back. Now we have to give him time to be 100 per cent fit. He has done fantastic in the past and no doubt he is going to do very good things for this club in the future.

“With Estevao? Yes, they can play together. It depends against which team and the game plan, but for sure the fans are excited to watch both together. We are also excited, thinking at the end we always need balance between the two phases [on the ball and off the ball].”

😤 𝐎𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝:

“I said after [Barcelona] it’s another big game on Sunday.

“We finish one against Barcelona, as you say we won and it was a good feeling. Now we have another one.

“For me, they are all important games. For sure, beating Barcelona is good and if we are able to beat Arsenal, it’s a nice feeling. But in the end it’s three points and then on Wednesday we have Leeds which is another three points. We will try our best to beat Arsenal and then we will see.“

🔴⚪️ 𝐎𝐧 𝐀𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐥:

“They defend fantastically.

“Any teams against them, they struggle to score goals, not only to score goals, but even to create chances. So it’s a team that they defend very well. Then they have weapons when they attack.”

(Via ChelseaFC & BobbyVincent - Football London)

#CFC #Chelsea #ChelseaFC

🚨 𝗕𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚 Mykhailo Mudryk has PASSED a voluntary lie detector test to prove he never took a banned substance knowingly. 🇺🇦🗂️

(Source: MailSport)