'100% complete, perfect' – Maresca names Newcastle’s biggest strength

We all know how good Newcastle’s midfield has been in the last few years, it’s been the foundation of their recent success and Maresca was asked directly about it in the presser:

“They are, as you said, Sandro Tonali, [Bruno] Guimaraes, Joelinton, [Lewis] Miley also, that now is playing full-back. But they are all fantastic players, all international players. And the best thing is that they complete each other. They are physically strong, they are good on the ball, so they are 100% complete, perfect.

“So it’s very difficult, not only for us, it’s very difficult for any team to face them. But we’re going to try our best and try to win the game.”

Given the impressive physicality of the Newcastle team, we’d expect to see Reece James alongside Moises Caicedo in the middle for the Blues as they try to compete.

Another factor will be playing at St James’ Park, one of the hardest stadiums in the league to go do, and one of the places where Chelsea have the worst record. There is some hope that playing the early kick off will help us – but we’re not holding our breath.

In other news…

Both Pedro Neto and Alejandro Garnacho are scoring and assisting pretty effectively this season, and Maresca spoke a bit about improving them in his presser today.

Liam Delap’s injury looked pretty bad when he came off against Bournemouth – but according to Maresca’s presser, the striker could be back as soon as next week, when we play Aston Villa.