Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca was full of praise for hat-trick hero Noni Madueke after he inspired Chelsea’s second half thrashing of Wolves.
Madueke’s 14 minute hat-trick wrapped up a hard thought win for the Blues, who were twice pegged back by Gary O’Neil’s men in the first half.
A first treble in the Premier League for the winger coincided with a social media story Madueke posted by accident late on Saturday night, but Blues boss Maresca says he trusts the maturity of his players.
“To be honest, I didn’t know,” he said. “They just mentioned to me now but I didn’t know about Noni’s social post. I can judge Noni’s performance – it was fantastic. Not only the second-half but also the first-half, he was always one-v-one creating something.
“From day one I’ve said he is the kind of winger I really like. He is working really well for us. The best thing today from Noni was not his hat-trick but the way he defended. 90 minutes, that showed the right mentality that I’m demanding from the players.
“I am the kind of person who trusts people. I think people are mature enough to know what is correct and not correct. In this case, I think Noni is mature enough to understand what he did, if it’s correct or not correct.”
Maresca was also delighted with getting a first win in the Premier League under Chelsea’s belt, and hopes the west Londoners can kick on after back to back victories in the league and Europe.
“It’s always good to win games. We won one game the other day in the Conference League, so two in a row. Hopefully we can build some momentum from there and to continue to improve.
“For us, the target in this moment is to see the way we improve. They are just asking me now about different things that no one from the club asked me to compete for the Premier League or a Champions League spot.
“They just asked me to improve the players, improve the team, and also in this moment the targets is to solve the economic problem in terms of the reason why we need to sell players and do some things.
“If we solve these kind of problems, and from there, we try to do our best and see where we arrive.”
