Revealed: Why Enzo Maresca missed Chelsea's post-match press conference after disappointing draw to Bournemouth

Chelsea and Bournemouth played out a chaotic 2-2 draw on Tuesday, with Antoine Semenyo setting up both goals for the visitors. The forward is expected to depart the club shortly for Manchester City in a £65 million transfer and showed why he's a wanted man with another influential display. David Brooks opened the scoring after just six minutes for Bournemouth but they were pegged back when Cole Palmer equalised from the penalty spot. Enzo Fernandez then fired the hosts ahead before Justin Kluivert equalised after 27 minutes. The draw means that Chelsea have now won just one of their past seven league games and head into 2026 a distant 15 points behind leaders Arsenal in the table.

Maresca was due to face the press after the game but did not show up for his media duties and was replaced by Caballero instead. Chelsea's assistant coach revealed that Maresca had not been feeling well and so had decided to skip the press conference.

He told reporters: "He didn't feel well in the last two days, with a bit of temperature the last two days, he did the sessions to prepare the game but after the game he asked me to replace him because he wasn't feeling well."

Caballero went on to share his thoughts on the game: "It was a crazy first half. We turned the score around but then immediately conceded a goal, so that's something we need to improve and correct immediately. The players showed up and created the build-up and the open play was on point. It was perfect, we created chances and had chances in the second half too. Unfortunately we couldn't win the game and it feels a little bit disappointing. We did better things than Bournemouth to get the three points, but we only have one point because we conceded two goals today. The final product was just missing because we arrived in the box and got many crosses off. We are improving in certain areas but we still need to learn to kill games and maintain the score when we are winning. We put in a lot of effort to go up 2-1 but we couldn't manage things to take three points. It is always frustrating to concede from set pieces but it is part of the game. When you concede two in the same game though, it is tough."

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Chelsea also saw midfielder Moises Caicedo booked after just four minutes of the game. The yellow card is his fifth of the season and brings an automatic one-match ban, ruling him out of the Blues' clash with Manchester City on Sunday.

Caballero admitted he was disappointment with the decision to book Caicedo, explaining: "Very frustrated with Caicedo's suspension because it was the first foul of the game. It doesn't look a yellow for me but it's done now so we are going to miss a very important player but we need to think about who will replace Moi because he is a big loss."

Chelsea have endured a miserable December and will hope their form can improve into 2026. Their first match of the new year brings a difficult test against a Manchester City side aiming to cut the gap to Arsenal at the top of the table. Pep Guardiola's side have won their last eight matches in all competitions and will be favourites for victory when the two teams meet on Sunday at the Etihad Stadium.