Maresca to feature Palmer in Conference League

Enzo Maresca is ready to deploy Cole Palmer in the UEFA Conference League.

The Conference League may be somewhat behind the Champions League and the Europa League in terms of European football prestige. And it’s certainly a sign of Chelsea’s relative decline that they are involved in this competition just four years after being crowned champions of Europe for the second time in their history.

But with Chelsea a mammoth 21 points behind Premier League leaders Liverpool, Blues manager Maresca has taken a strong squad with him to Denmark for Thursday’s last-16 first leg away to Superliga leaders Copenhagen.

England rising star Palmer could start after previously being left out of all of Chelsea’s previous Conference League games following the play-offs in August, with the squad also featuring Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez.

“Cole is excited to play training sessions, so for sure, he is excited to play these games,” Maresca told a pre-match press conference on Wednesday. “The plan was exactly this plan (to bring him back into the Conference League squad).”

It was only last week’s 4-0 win over basement club Southampton that ended a run of three straight Chelsea defeats in all competitions, with Maresca’s men knocked out of the FA Cup by Brighton before losing to the Seagulls in the league.

“This is another opportunity to show that we are ready,” explained Chelsea defender Marc Cucurella. “We need to do the last step. It’s a good moment to show that we are ready to fight for big things.”

One group of Chelsea fans staged a protest before the Southampton match, with Spain international Cucurella saying: “I can understand it. The fans can show their feelings. We need to show in the games that we know that Chelsea is a top club.”

The wing-back added: “In December it looked like we were the best team in the league and now it looks like we are one of the worst. But in football, this can happen. We are young. We have a new manager. We have new ideas. We play good football. We can understand the fans.”