Maresca dismisses Hurzeler questions, hails ex-Brighton boss instead

Enzo Maresca piled praise on former Brighton boss Roberto De Zerbi before Chelsea's return to the Amex Stadium - and then refused to speak about his successor Fabian Hurzeler.

The Italian and the German renew rivalries in the Premier League tonight after Brighton won their FA Cup tie last weekend. Asked about the youngest boss in the Premier League, the clearly unimpressed Chelsea head coach initially said: “I prefer not to say anything about their manager.”

And then in a bizarre set of responses to further questions, the Chelsea coach said: "It’s not that I’m not impressed. First of all, I think the previous Brighton manager is a top manager, not because he's a friend of mine. But I think he's a top manager. And that’s it, yeah.”

Asked if Hurzeler had annoyed him, Maresca said: "No, no, no problem at all. I just said that De Zerbi is a fantastic manager and a friend of mine. I will say no more than that."