Maresca wanted Palace player sent off and thinks Glasner’s reaction was telling

Will Hughes was lucky to stay on the pitch in Crystal Palace’s 1-1 draw with Chelsea on Sunday.

That’s the view of Blues boss Enzo Maresca, who thought that moment could have altered the game.

Chelsea were 1-0 up at Stamford Bridge at the time, with Nicolas Jackson giving them the lead.

Hughes was already on a yellow card when he cynically hauled down Cole Palmer just outside the area.

Palace immediately took off the midfielder seemingly in response to him avoiding a red card.

When asked by talkSPORT about whether the Eagles should have been down to 10, Maresca said: Yeah, I think also the reaction from their bench that they immediately made the change, is quite clear. 

“But the referee thought in a different way. I think at that moment we were still 1-0 up, so probably the game with the red card was almost finished.”

The Blues boss believed his side deserved all three points and he is still without a win at home in his opening two games at Stamford Bridge.

He added: We completely deserved to win the game. We controlled the game.

“Overall, we completely deserved to win the game. Unfortunately we didn’t. 

“The performance was very good on and off the ball. After we conceded the goal, we lost our way.”

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Malo Gusto went off injured and Maresca confirmed that the defender has a muscle injury.

Chelsea are 11th after their first three games of the season.

Next up for the Blues will be West Ham after the international break.

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