Chelsea fans watched their side put in a terrible first-half performance against Newcastle United.
Enzo Maresca‘s men found themselves 2-0 down going into the break, resulting in the away support making one demand.
Maresca rested all of his key players, as he has done in Chelsea‘s other cup games this season.
It meant the likes of Cole Palmer and Noni Madueke were left on the bench. Chelsea fans wanted to see Palmer start at St James’ Park, but Maresca had other ideas.
Chelsea fans called for Cole Palmer
Madueke was the first and only substitute that the Chelsea manager made, and it was not hard to understand why he brought him on.
The winger has been one of Chelsea’s best players this season, scoring four goals in eight Premier League appearances.
However, understandably, Palmer was the name being chanted in the away end, according to journalist Bobby Vincent, with Chelsea supporters wanting Maresca to bring him on.
Palmer scored the winning goal against Newcastle when the two sides met at Stamford Bridge last weekend.
Enzo Maresca should have shown Newcastle more respect
Maresca probably needed at least one of his star attackers on the pitch to win the game.
Newcastle are not weak opposition and showed that tonight. Maresca and Chelsea are being cautious with Palmer, not even registering him for the league phase of the Conference League.
The England international is the Blues’ best player, so they want to wrap him up in cotton wool. However, Maresca could have perhaps started Madueke, especially with Jadon Sancho missing the game because of illness.
Again, the 22-year-old has been one of Chelsea’s top performers this season. In fact, Madueke has had more touches in the box than Palmer in the current Premier League campaign.
Instead, Maresca went with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall on the right in an experiment that pretty much backfired. He was replaced by Madueke early in the second half.
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