Liam Dellup faces “6-8 weeks” with injuries, says Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca after winning at Fulham

Early in the game, Summer Signature Liam limped over a hamstring problem.

“Yeah, hamstring, it was full speed, so I hope it’s long,” Maresca told TNT Sports. “But this type of injury is probably six to eight weeks.”

Maresca was later asked at a press conference about his chances of immersing himself in another striker’s transfer market before the windows close on Monday.

“When you have two strikers, that’s enough. When one of them gets injured in different weeks, that’s probably not enough,” he said.

“Today, we played over an hour at Tyrique (George) and he did something amazing. The last game he played as a nine-year-old came together at home last year.

“If you remember using Pedro (Neto) as a nine in some games last year, that’s because we’re always looking for a solution, but when we have to do the right nine, it’s certainly enough.”

Maresca was also questioned about speculation that Nicholas Jackson was subsequently blocked from the move to lend to Bayern Munich.

“I’ve just finished the game, come here and we’re sitting now, we’re not going to see. Honestly, I don’t know,” the Chelsea coach said.

Chelsea benefited from technology late on after being awarded a penalty for Ryan Sesegnon’s handball despite the appearance of blues striker Joan Pedro in the review.

The Italian disdained the rage around the judiciary when asked if his side was lucky with the decision.

“I don’t think I’ll be honest because a foul is a foul and a penalty is a penalty,” Maresca said.

“To me, it’s very clear and if there’s doubt I’d say, but it’s clear that the foul is a foul and the other is handball.”

The replays appeared to show that the ball was taking Pedro’s move just before Sesegnon admitted the second half penalty, but Maresca believes the right decision was made.

“No, it was very clear that it was handball. Again, the idea was a penalty, but it was a bit long to wait for them to review it and be honest. But in the end, it was a penalty,” he said.

“We didn’t get enough in the first half, but the second half was great. For me, this is an analysis of my game,” he said.

“In the first half we didn’t keep the ball and we didn’t win a duel. These are things that you need. In the second half we did the right thing.”

He added: “It’s very easy. We didn’t prepare to play or build the game. In this kind of game, we had to win the duel and the second ball, we didn’t win the duel. The second half was great.”

The victory will allow Chelsea to tentatively move to the top with up to seven points on the Premier League table ahead of the rest of the weekend.

Next Maresca’s side is a trip to Brentford on Saturday, September 13th.