Maresca: Chelsea are over-reliant on Palmer

Enzo Maresca believes Chelsea are over-reliant on Cole Palmer and rejected criticism of the midfielder's body language in recent games.

Chelsea slipped to seventh in the Premier League with a 2-1 defeat at Aston Villa on Saturday, a game in which Palmer missed a clear chance with the scores level.

He has not scored in his last six matches dating back to Jan. 14 and also wasted a good opportunity to put Chelsea 2-0 up at Manchester City last month, a match they went on to lose 3-1.

Speaking on Tuesday ahead of the visit of rock-bottom Southampton, Maresca said: "I am always concerned about general performance but I am not concerned about Cole because Cole is a human being and during the season he can have some moments where he struggles a little bit more.

"The problem with Cole is probably that we rely on Cole for everything and I said since we start we need to rely on the team. For sure, we need big players, top players like Cole but we are not worried about Cole at all."