Enzo Maresca told he must ‘get a hold’ of Chelsea duo after Aston Villa loss | Football

Liverpool legend Steve Nicol believes Enzo Maresca needs to ‘get a hold’ of two Chelsea players after their disappointing 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa.

Chelsea took a deserved lead in the first half through Joao Pedro, who got a slight touch on Reece James’ in-swinging corner to open the scoring.

The Blues were by far the better team in the first 45 minutes, but missed a number of chances and struggled to press home their advantage after the break.

Instead, it was a triple change from Unai Emery on the hour mark, which changed the impetus at Stamford Bridge, Ollie Watkins coming off the bench to score a superb brace and snatch a dramatc win for Villa.

Watkins bundled an equaliser past Robert Sanchez before heading home from a corner to make it eight Premier League wins in a row for the Midlands side, who sit third in the table and just three behind leaders Arsenal.

Meanwhile, the result continued Chelsea’s frustrating recent run of form, which has seen Maresca’s side drift out of title contention after just one win in their last six league games.

A lack of experience has often been seen as the key factor holding Chelsea back from being serious title contenders under Maresca, but former Liverpool defender Nicol believes that excuse is beginning to run dry.

‘I hate this line about Chelsea being young,’ he told ESPN. ‘Sanchez is 27, Cucurella is 28, you have to central midfielders who are 24, but they have as much experience as anybody.

‘Reece James is 26, so I’m past the young thing. At the end of the day, particularly Enzo Fernandez and Moises in the middle of the park, it all starts with them.’

And Nicol insisted that Maresca must demand more from his central midfield duo, particularly when Chelsea are ahead and looking to see out a result.

‘Now, I do believe they have problems at centre-back and I think that doesn’t help,’ he added.

‘But the guts of the team are those two (Fernandez and Caicedo), and, in my opinion, those are the two who should be sorting things around them and behind them when they are ahead and stopping the opposition from playing and then getting the result.

‘You play your football, you get ahead but then you have to be smart. And I’m sorry, these two guys have had enough experience. World Club champions, they’ve won a European title. How much experience do you need?