Enzo Maresca believes the Carabao Cup represents an important opportunity for Chelsea to target silverware this season, but isn’t letting his attention slip any further ahead than tomorrow’s fourth-round tie for the time being.
The Blues booked our place in the last 16 of the League Cup with a 2-1 win away at Lincoln City, thanks to goals from Facundo Buonanotte and Tyrique George. Next up, we face Premier League opposition, with another away trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers on Wednesday evening for a 7.45pm GMT kick-off.
A victory at Molineux would mean we are only two more wins away from an appearance at Wembley for the final. Maresca believes that for players at a big club like Chelsea, that opportunity should be a big motivation, even if he is not getting ahead of himself or underestimating the challenge Wolves will pose.
‘We’re three games from the final so we need to have the desire to play for that,’ explained Maresca.
‘As we said many times, we need to go game-by-game. Now the first one is Wolves tomorrow, we need to focus on that, and then hopefully after winning the game, then we can think about the next one.
‘I just try to focus game-by-game, no matter which competition it is, and try to go as far as we can.
‘I think for Chelsea all the competitions are important. Chelsea has to try to win games and try to win competitions. So for me, personally, all the competitions are important.’
One thing which could help the Blues find a way past Wolves and into the quarter-finals is our excellent record from attacking set-pieces. So far this season, only leaders Arsenal have scored more than Chelsea’s nine goals from set-pieces in the Premier League.
However, as much as Maresca is pleased with the number of goals we are scoring, it is the other end of the pitch which is currently taking up more of his attention, as he looks to cut down on the number of goals netted against us.
‘We also concede, Arsenal also concede from set-pieces,’ he pointed out. ‘Set-pieces for me is part of the game, you are going to score goals from set-pieces and you are going to concede goals from set-pieces.
‘It’s good news that after Arsenal we are the team with the most goals, and we are going to try to continue to score goals, but not just on set-pieces, in all the ways. At this moment we are the team in the Premier League with the most goals, 17, so that means that we score goals, from set-pieces and open play.
‘Probably we need to pay a little bit more attention to the goals we are in this moment conceding.’