Enzo Maresca was celebrating wildly from his seat in the stands as Chelsea secured a crucial 1-0 home win against Everton on Saturday.
The Blues momentarily moved into the top four of the Premier League as a narrow victory against Everton secured back-to-back wins at a pivotal time of the season.
Maresca was suspended from the touchline for this game due to picking up another yellow card, but TV cameras showed him punching the air when Nicolas Jackson put Chelsea ahead in the first half and that goal turned out to be the winner.
Enzo Maresca reaction
Speaking to TNT Sports
What pleased him most about peformance? “First of all I think the three points. At this stage of the season it is very important. The performance, the first half we dominate, we didn’t concede anything. Second half we drop a little bit. It’s part of the game. We defended well when we needed to defend. We attacked quite well when we needed to attack. Overall a good game. Three points. We are happy.”
Strong in the duels key today?: “Absolutely. The goal came from the pressing. We won the ball back. It is important.”
How pleased are you for Robert Sanchez to put in a man of the match performance?: “Very happy.
He deserves this to be honest. He received some criticism that is not good. You can see also at the end how his teammates celebrate with him because he deserved that.”
What is it going to take for Chelsea to qualify for Champions League?: “Four games to go. Go game by game. When you win a game you see yourself there and you’re happy. If you don’t win you don’t see yourself there and you are upset. It is how we control the emotion until the end. The important thing is that we are there.”
Can you use this game as momentum?: “Yeah. I think also the last game against Fulham was a good one. Overall now we need to win some more games.”
Speaking to BBC Match of the Day
How important was it in the top five race?: “In this moment it is important to go game by game. Anything can change if you win or you lose. It is important to control the emotion. At the end we will see.”
Played well but couldn’t grab another goal in the first half when you were on top: “It already happened many times this season that we were not able to score more goals and to kill the game. Second half I think we dropped a little bit but overall we defend quite well, we created some chances. Overall we deserved to win the game.”
Big for Nicolas Jackson to score his first goal in over four months?: “He needs that. Cole needs that. But for sure I have no doubt Cole is going to score like Nico did today.”
Robert Sanchez made two big saves, how important was that?: “Big saves because in the last weeks he deserved the support from us, the teammates and the club. We are all there to support Robert.”
On being sat up in the stands and his slightly different view: “It was a good view. It’s better to be on the bench. From the outside it’s worse. Overall we won the game and we are happy.”
Chelsea player reaction
Marc Cucurella simply said: “We know every game is a final... I think now every game is important. Everybody is important. Today we gave everything on the pitch. Now we have an important game on Thursday. We want to play one final this season. First we need to see about this because we have other important games.”
Nicolas Jackson added on his goal and scoring for the first time in over four months: “It was a very good goal. Very happy to be back... Very good, everybody knows coming back from injury isn’t easy but now my body feels good, I’m coming back to my level. I am very happy that we win. That is the most important thing.”
Nicolas Jackson on Champions League: “For the players, for the fans, everybody. That is our dream. I’ve never played it. Hopefully next year we play in it. We are still fighting. It’s not done yet so now we just move to the next one and try to fight for that spot.”
