{"id":423191,"date":"2025-09-14T08:01:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T08:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/423191\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T08:01:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T08:01:11","slug":"more-injury-woes-for-chelsea-as-enzo-maresca-confirms-another-attacker-is-struggling-with-fitness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/423191\/","title":{"rendered":"More injury woes for Chelsea as Enzo Maresca confirms another attacker is struggling with fitness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Enzo Maresca was forced to rotate his side heavily for Chelsea\u2019s 2-2 draw with Brentford, however admitted after the game that one of his starters is \u2018not 100% fit\u2019.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Blues conceded deep in added time in the West London derby, with their impressive second half fightback not enough to secure all three points.<\/p>\n<p>Changes were needed to spark life in the Chelsea side at half-time, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thechelseachronicle.com\/match-coverage\/chelsea-fans-have-a-lot-to-say-about-jamie-gittens-after-starting-in-2-2-draw-vs-brentford\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Blues fans were disappointed by Jamie Gittens\u2019 performance<\/a> in his second Premier League start.<\/p>\n<p>The introduction of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thechelseachronicle.com\/tag\/cole-palmer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cole Palmer<\/a> was a massive boost for the Blues, and his fine strike sparked their comeback late on.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thechelseachronicle.com\/match-coverage\/gianfranco-zola-hails-unbelievable-chelsea-star-despite-2-2-draw-vs-brentford\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Gianfranco Zola praised Palmer<\/a> for his performance, as he marked his return from injury with a goal, however he is not the only player currently suffering with fitness problems.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"751\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2235233568-1-1024x751.jpg\" alt=\"Brentford v Chelsea - Premier League\" \/>Photo by Chris Lee \u2013 Chelsea FC\/Chelsea FC via Getty ImagesEnzo Maresca confirms another Chelsea attacker is struggling with injury<\/p>\n<p>Maresca said after the game that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thechelseachronicle.com\/tag\/joao-pedro\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Joao Pedro<\/a> had already told him that he wasn\u2019t at full capacity before the game, however he still started him against Brentford.<\/p>\n<p>He said: \u201cJoao Pedro told me he wasn\u2019t 100 percent fit so if I was thinking of Bayern Munich then I wouldn\u2019t play him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Brazilian kept up his good run of contributing to goals since he joined Chelsea with the assist for Palmer, however was on the end of a physical defensive display from the Brentford backline.<\/p>\n<p>With the bloated fixture list that is coming their way in the coming weeks, they will be counting on Pedro to deliver across multiple competitions.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2235248303-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Brentford v Chelsea - Premier League\" \/>Photo by Chris Lee \u2013 Chelsea FC\/Chelsea FC via Getty ImagesChelsea need Pedro to deliver in coming weeks<\/p>\n<p>After the departure of Nicolas Jackson on loan, the Blues left themselves light of options in the striker position for this season.<\/p>\n<p>These issues have been added to by the news that Liam Delap is set to miss a number of months of action following a hamstring injury.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thechelseachronicle.com\/tag\/marc-guiu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Marc Guiu<\/a> was recalled from his loan spell at Sunderland, however the fact he was not in the matchday squad for this game perhaps gives an indication into how highly Maresca rates him.<\/p>\n<p>It looks as if Pedro is set to bear the majority of minutes in the striker position, starting with the Champions League group stage opener against Bayern Munich.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Enzo Maresca was forced to rotate his side heavily for Chelsea\u2019s 2-2 draw with Brentford, however admitted after&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[1367,94,11450,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-423191","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-enzo-maresca","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-joao-pedro","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115201604959767172","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}