Enzo Maresca had come under scrutiny after his unexpected, somewhat cryptic remark had dominated the aftermath of Chelsea's win against Everton as well as the build-up to this encounter, with the Italian clearly irritated when he was repeatedly asked to clarify his comment during a pre-match news conference on Monday.

Very happy, especially for the effort of the players. I said yesterday that the schedule is full of these tricky games, and so you have to pay attention, and we did that.