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chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca defended Premier League sides’ increasing reliance on set-pieces ahead of Saturday’s meeting with Tottenham.
Italian Hither has not been a proponent of using carefully planned dead-ball routines to trick opponents and favors a positional style of play that builds attacks from the back.
In contrast, Spurs scored twice from direct corners during Sunday’s 3-0 win evertonWhile Chelsea have on two occasions this season dropped points to teams who have damaged them from long throw-ins.
“Set-pieces are part of the game,” said Maresca, whose team is ninth after losing at home Sunderland last weekend. “You need to learn how you can perform better offensively and defensively.
“If you score from a corner, how do you get the corner? From open play. There’s no division – open play, offensive, defensive. This is football. Set-pieces are part of football.
“If you have a free-kick on the sideline or you have a corner, it’s because you’ve created a position to get a corner or a free-kick. That’s from open play.”
league-leader armory The opening weeks of the season have hinged their success on skillful use of corners and free-kicks, while under Keith Andrews and Regis Le Bris the newly-promoted Black Cats have used long throws to decisive effect.
Maresca has said that he is not going to be a disciple of the long throw-in. Last season and this one, his Blues team have tried to dominate possession and attack teams by using the wingers’ runs, to mixed success.
“I don’t know why people don’t like (set-pieces),” he said. “Everyone tries to use their own threat. If there are teams that think they can create more chances with longer throw-ins, why not? Everyone tries to use different weapons.”
Maresca said he had started training his players for the Spurs game even before they returned home from Wednesday’s 4-3 Carabao Cup win over Wolves.
The result at Molineux brought relief after the manner in which Chelsea collapsed after taking an early lead against Sunderland, although the manner in which they allowed Wolves to get back into the game after being 3–0 down was cause for further concern.
“We were disappointed with the way we lost (against Sunderland) but we need to move on. We played against Wolves, we got the quarter-finals.
“We need to move on, but even when we win we try to move on. We played Wolves on Wednesday night and on the way back after the game we started watching Spurs on the plane and the bus.
“After tomorrow we will start looking at Qarabag. You don’t stop. You have to focus on the next one and learn.”
With the youngest team in the Premier League, Maresca again had to face questions about his team’s readiness to challenge for the title in the defeat to Sunderland and the second half against Wolves.
“I think because of our age nobody expected Chelsea to win the Club World Cup but we did. In the Premier League you need consistency but the aim for us is to improve and be consistent throughout the season.”