Chelsea: Enzo Maresca denies Gary Neville claim Cole Palmer was 'played' by Pep Guardiola

The England planetary squandered a glaring accidental to enactment Chelsea 2-0 up erstwhile overhitting a elemental quadrate walk for Nicolas Jackson aboriginal connected and past watched Erling Haaland animate the champions’s fightback.

At full-time, Palmer was seen engaging successful a lengthy on-field speech with erstwhile manager Guardiola and the brace appeared to stock a gag arsenic they headed towards the tunnel.

Speaking connected his Sky Sports podcast, erstwhile Man United defender Neville suggested the enactment did not “feel right”.

“Cole, you're being played, you're being played here,” Neville said. “You didn't bash capable retired connected that transportation successful the 2nd half.

“He's an astonishing player, perfectly brilliant. but you cognize something? Those Chelsea fans that person travelled today, 3,000 to 4,000 [of them] implicit successful that acold corner. They wanted amended than that. They don't truly privation to spot you conversing with the absorption manager and smiling astatine the extremity of the game.”

Maresca is himself a erstwhile City employee, having worked some wrong the club’s younker setup and past connected Guardiola’s unit during their 2022/23 Premier League rubric success.

The Italian remains bully friends with Guardiola and insisted helium had nary occupation with his mentor’s actions pursuing past week’s clash.

“I don’t deliberation Pep is playing a game, particularly aft the crippled is finished,” helium said. “I don’t cognize what benignant of crippled you are playing erstwhile the crippled is finished. But you astir apt person to inquire [Neville] the crushed wherefore helium said that.

“Sometimes we decorativeness the crippled and I spell connected the transportation and find an absorption subordinate I know. I person a chat with him. If we accidental thing we laugh. Even the Fulham crippled we lost, I had [Timothy] Castagne astatine Leicester, I had a chat with him connected the pitch, we were saying thing and I was laughing.

“But it was not due to the fact that I was blessed to suffer the game. It was conscionable a moment. It is much a question for him [Neville].”