Enzo Maresca was full of praise for Romeo Lavia and believes he is one of the best midfielders around following his performance in the 1-0 win over Everton.
Returning to the starting lineup for the first time in 12 matches due to injury, the Belgian midfielder put in an impressive shift as he helped keep Everton at bay.
Despite playing only 67 minutes, Lavia made 38 total passes with an 86.8% success rate and had two interceptions – the second highest out of anyone.
The manager will certainly hope that he can stay injury free now, having missed 64 Chelsea games since he joined at the beginning of last season with hamstring and ankle issues.
Maresca said: “I spent one entire season with Romeo when I was under-23 at City. For us it’s like Reece, they are both top players. The only shame for us is that unfortunately we need to manage them.
“When he’s fit, he’s one of the best midfielders because he can defend very well, he can attack, he breaks the line, the pass between the lines, it’s unbelievable.”
David Moyes conceded that his team were well outplayed in the first half and should have conceded more but that they should have scored in the second half.
The Toffees had three shots after half time as well as three crosses into the box, which required Robert Sanchez to make impressive saves as he won man-of-the-match.
Moyes said: “We were maybe fortunate to only be one-nil down at half time, but we stuck at it and grew into the game as it went on. I thought we played really well in the second half, a bit unlucky not to get it [the equaliser], just probably lacking the quality to try and get the finish at the end of some well-worked play.”
Chelsea’s boss was disappointed with the drop-off and intensity in play after scoring the only goal of the match and instead wanted his team to push for a second.
He bemoaned: “It has happened a lot this season, where we have not scored goals to kill the game. In the second half, we dropped a little bit but overall we deserved to win.”
Nicolas Jackson scored his first goal in 12 matches – dating back to December – in the 27th minute as he got the ball out of his feet and hit the ball into the bottom corner from range.
The striker had the ball in the net once more seven minutes from time, but it was ruled out as he had strayed into an offside position from the original shot.