Ahead of Chelsea's League Cup third-round match against Leeds, Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca held a press conference. He discussed the team's reflections and adjustments after their loss to Arsenal, and also addressed the injury status of Caicedo, Palmastella, and others. This article is the second part of the exclusive interview.

Do you think fans also need to be patient? Especially, as you just mentioned, regarding clean sheets and the team's defense...

These things will come, I am 100% sure they will. So we need to keep working and improve where we can do better. At the same time, I also know what we are already doing well, and we need to strive to further strengthen these areas.

However, we are learning from many things. I am also learning from the players, from the team, from our opponents, and from the Premier League. We are now part of this growth process. This Chelsea team is far from a finished product, and even further from its final form, I am very sure of that. I probably said in my first press conference that the Chelsea we have at the beginning of August would be different by January, and it would also be different by May, and by then it would be a much better team.

Will Henderson and Omada have a chance to play tomorrow?

No, not yet.

How long do you think it will be until they return?

How long? Ask me again on Friday. Write it down so we don't forget (laughs).

One more question. I wonder if you are aware of this. Because the Chelsea you faced as a player was a team known for its physicality, they always fought hard with opponents and were good at some of the "dark arts" in the game. Do you think these things also need to be brought into this current team? Because I feel that against Arsenal, the opponent seemed to win the physical battle, including off-the-ball challenges and those physical tussles and small fouls.

We reviewed many aspects of the game, and there were indeed some such moments. So for me, there's no need to over-analyze it now. However, to adapt to the Premier League and to understand what is needed to play in the Premier League, physicality is definitely very important.

We will try to analyze a lot of data from the game, but we always need to view this data in the specific context of the match. So for some players, adapting to this pace of play is very important. Some players have already completed this adaptation. And the kind of squad we want to have, the kind of team we want to build, this team must also be able to cope with this pace of play.

I just wanted to ask, do you think as a whole, they need to play tougher? Are they too "honest" right now?

We want to compete. I don't know whether to use "tougher" or some other word, but we just want to compete, because that's the best way to win games. You have to adapt to such games, and you have to compete, and this competition is reflected in two aspects. One is the football aspect, and the other is the mental and psychological aspect. In all these aspects, we can still do better.

Because you will need these things against Leeds tomorrow night, right? It will be a very confrontational game.

Yes. We expect tomorrow to be a very intense and tough game, with a lot of one-on-one battles. But we have to find a way to deal with these situations and find solutions. We know that this will play a very important role in tomorrow's game.

Related reading:

Alonso: Caicedo and Palmastella still unavailable; Estevao in my plans

AF's PC site is now live! Browse full news, comments, match details and stats on your computer. Visit: www.allfootballapp.com