Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca aims dig at his own player as he bites back at questions over Blues' inexperience in wake of dire Leeds loss

Chelsea came to Leeds on Wednesday with Premier League title ambitions but they were sent homeward to think again after a chastening 3-1 loss. The Whites started the day in the relegation zone but were fully deserving of the three points as a disjointed and petulant Blues side were put to the sword. After the defeat, head coach Maresca admitted his team - who have the youngest squad in the Premier League with an average age of 23 years - didn't deserve to come away with anything from the encounter.

He told BBC Match of the Day: "A very poor night, they [Leeds] deserved to win the game, they were better in all aspects. [We will] Just try to analyse and learn from this game and focus o the next one. It's not about possession, in possession you need a purpose. Today they were better in all aspects. Congratulations to them. After the goal we scored we had one or two clear chances, but the third goal killed the game completely, then it's much more difficult. It's reality, it's Premier League, you need to perform every game, no matter if you are at home or away or who the other team is. It's important to see where we are going to be in February or March, but most important is to understand what we did bad tonight and then try to improve."

While nobody had a particularly good night for Chelsea, ahead of facing Bournemouth on Saturday, Maresca singled out centre-back Tosin Adarabioyo for his mistake that led to Leeds' third goal. The Italian was asked if the team's lack of experience hurt them in Yorkshire, with captain Reece James, the suspended Moises Caicedo and more not in the starting XI. But he pointed out that the former Fulham defender was their oldest player, and that didn't help him a great deal. 

He said, via Football London: "Listen, we always talk about experience when we drop points. When we beat Barcelona, we drew against Arsenal, no one was mentioning about experienced players. So, again, I understand that when we don't win, we are always looking for the reason why, but I think the reason why we didn't win against Leeds is not because of the experience, it's because we were not good enough. But we have experienced players. Unfortunately, they were not inside the pitch. One because he was suspended, the other one because of injury. So, it's because in that moment, the ones that have more experience, they were out. Who is the oldest one for us in the pitch? Who was? Tosin. Did he play good? So, it's not about experience. It's about that 11 players, they were not good enough. I know that we are always looking for experience, but it was a bad game for all of us."

Maresca was criticised after he made five changes from the Chelsea side that drew with Arsenal for the match at Leeds. But with the Blues regularly playing three games a week, due to Premier League and Champions League duties, the former Leicester City manager is conscious of not over-exerting his players - especially after their Club World Cup-winning exploits this summer. 

When asked about how difficult it is to keep tweaking his starting line-ups, he replied: "Yeah, it's the most difficult thing for me, personally, this season. Because, as I said, for many reasons, we need to make changes. Now, we played two days ago, we came back yesterday afternoon. We have just one session this morning. Most of them, they cannot take part of the session because they need to recover. So, we're going to try to prepare in the best way tomorrow."

Chelsea, who are still fourth in the Premier League but are now nine points behind table-toppers Arsenal after 14 games, will hope to bounce back from their loss to Leeds when they travel to Bournemouth on Saturday afternoon. The Cherries have lost four of their last five fixtures, so this game presents a good opportunity for Maresca's side to return to winning ways.