Enzo Maresca hails Chelsea ‘spirit’ after melee breaks out at end of Forest draw

Enzo Maresca was happy with the “fighting spirit” of his Chelsea team after a melee broke out in the closing stages of Sunday’s 1-1 Premier League draw against 10-man Nottingham Forest at Stamford Bridge.

Virtuality all 22 players plus substitutes were involved in the disorder which was sparked when Forest’s Neco Williams pushed Marc Cucurella off the pitch, causing him to knock Maresca to the ground.

Cucurella was shown a yellow card for his role in the incident, his fifth of the season thereby ruling him out of Chelsea’s game against Liverpool after the international break, whilst Wesley Fofana was also booked and will miss the match at Anfield.

For the second time this season, the team were shown six yellow cards meaning they will likely face a fine.

“I think the team is fighting all together,” said Maresca. “I don’t think some of them lost their heads, I think they were all of them in the game, so I was happy with that.

Asked whether he feared his team had a discipline problem, he replied: “No. It’s something probably we need to improve, but overall I like the team the way they are fighting, the way they are becoming a team in these kind of things. I don’t see any problem about that.

“Now we have the international break, we have time to see how we can organise.”

During the fracas, which broke out in the 88th minute in front of the Chelsea dugout, Nicolas Jackson appeared to raise his hand to the face of a Forest player, an incident that was not spotted by the on-field referee. VAR confirmed they saw Jackson’s hand to the face but did not consider it obvious enough violent conduct to change the referee’s decision.

Jackson was not on the pitch, having been substituted in the 81st minute.

“In that moment not only