Jose Mourinho is all set to face a very different Chelsea side to the one he is used to, including one player he believes is amongst the best in the world.
Mourinho’s first Champions League game as Benfica boss comes at Stamford Bridge, where he would love nothing more than to crank the pressure up on current manager, Enzo Maresca.
Chelsea fans began to turn on Maresca during their second consecutive Premier League defeat, this time to Brighton.
The Blues again went down to 10 men following the sending off of Trevoh Chalobah, seeing the Italian again remove many of his attackers to try and stumble upon a system which could hold on to a result.
Jose Mourinho praises Blues attacker ahead of Chelsea vs Benfica
One of those who was removed was Pedro Neto, after he was subbed off just minutes into their eventual defeat to Manchester United off the back of Robert Sanchez’s red card.
The consecutive early departures have tainted what has been a very strong start to the season for the Portugal international, something that has been noted by some outside of the club.
One of those is Mourinho, who was full of praise in his pre-match press conference that Neto was amongst the best in his position.
He simply said: “One of the best wingers in the world.”
With the large amount of minutes played already this season, it remains to be seen if he is handed a rest against Benfica, with the likes of Alejandro Garnacho and Jamie Gittens waiting in the wings.
Neto disagreeing with Maresca’s tactics
There was plenty of criticism handed Maresca’s way when he made three early substitutions after going down to 10 men, with all of the attackers other than Joao Pedro being replaced.
One of those who disagreed seemed to be one of his own players, with Neto saying he wanted Chelsea to keep attacking even after they went down to 10 men.
The plan against Benfica will be for his side to not go down to 10 men at all, with a group stage win looking very important following their opening day defeat to Bayern Munich.
With Neto amongst the more experienced players in the very young side, his influence will be key on the Blues to steer them out of the tough moment they find themselves in.
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