Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca has suggested that he regrets part of his decision-making during his side's 1-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur.
The Blues went into Thursday's London derby needing a response on the back of results earlier in the week seeing them drop down to sixth position in the Premier League table.
However, a towering Enzo Fernandez header early in the second half ensured that Chelsea recorded a fourth successive win over their North London opponents at Stamford Bridge.
Although Spurs saw an equaliser disallowed through VAR in the second half, Maresca's side were deserved victors as they moved back into fourth spot.
Nevertheless, speaking at a press conference after the game, the Italian claimed that he could have made a different decision with regards to his substitutions late in the contest.
© Imago
'I acted too early'
In the first minute of added-on time, Maresca made a double defensive change, introducing Tosin Adarabioyo and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall in place of Fernandez and Cole Palmer.
Maresca has said that, in hindsight, he should have waited to see how much added-on time had been indicated, revealing he would have made a different call had he known that a further 12 minutes would be played.
As quoted by football.london, Maresca said: "I just said to the players, since day one we don't work every day to win the game in the way we win and play in the last 10 minutes.
"In terms of waiting for them and give the ball to them. But if you want to become a team, I think you need also to learn and to play in the way we played in the last 10 minutes.
"Win a game in a dirty way. Because I think for 90 minutes until the extra time we were in control, we created chances enough to win the game. We created chances enough in the first half.
"And then to be honest, that's been my mistake [bringing Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Tosin Adarabioyo on for Cole Palmer and Fernandez] because I did the change before I saw the extra time.
"And when I saw 12 minutes, I saw that probably it was too early to make that kind of change. But fortunately we won the game and we are happy."
© Imago
What next for Chelsea?
Attention now turns to a second London derby in the space of three days, Chelsea making the short trip to face Brentford on Sunday afternoon.
Chelsea will then make the trip to Poland to face Legia Warsaw in the first leg of their Conference League quarter-final before returning to Premier League action versus Ipswich Town.
Darren Plant
