Defiant Maresca defends Chelsea's style of play

Maresca's side were jeered by frustrated fans as they laboured to a drab 1-0 win against Premier League strugglers Leicester on Sunday. The Blues' method of keeping the ball and slowing down the play, even when chances arose to attack a leaky Leicester defence, sparked criticism of Maresca's gameplan.

But despite the mounting doubts about Maresca's tactics, only runaway Premier League leaders Liverpool have scored more than the 53 goals netted by the Blues in their 28 matches. That is an increase of six goals from the same point last season for fourth-placed Chelsea and Maresca has made it clear the players are under instruction to play his way.

"Football always evolves," said Maresca, whose side hold a 2-1 lead heading into the second leg of their Conference League last 16 tie against Copenhagen. "We have 20 clubs in the Premier League, more or less we are all different. There are teams that play to be aggressive and high pressing, teams that prefer to sit back and go in transition.

"I think off the ball the way we have played since the start is quite clear. We try to be aggressive. And on the ball we try to control the game and score when we need to score, defend when we need to defend. "In this moment I think we are the second or third best attacking team in the Premier League, so that means we are scoring a lot of goals. Defending also we are there. But we can attack better and we can defend better."

Maresca received a boost on the eve of the Copenhagen tie at Stamford Bridge as Cole Palmer was declared fit after he was withdrawn late in the win over Leicester. The England forward suffered from an illness prior to facing Leicester and also missed training on Tuesday. He took part in Wednesday's session alongside Christopher Nkunku and Reece James, who have also recovered from knocks.

"Today they trained with us, took part in the session," Maresca said. "We'll see for tomorrow if we're going to use some of them." Maresca backed Palmer to recover from the penalty miss against Leicester that extended his goalless run to eight games and ended his perfect career record from the spot. "Cole is going to miss more penalties, and the reason is because (he is) the one in charge. If you don't shoot, you don't miss," he said.