Despite a promising start to yesterday’s Premier League match, when Cole Palmer combined brilliantly with Jadon Sancho to give us a first-half lead, we made the trip back across London with just a single point, due to Jean-Philippe Mateta’s late equaliser for the home side.

Our head coach didn't have much in the way of criticism for his team, though, as we were on top for the majority of the game and had chances to win the match. That left him pleased with the individual performances of all his players, although the Italian reserved special praise for the youngest, Josh Acheampong.

Following the 18-year-old defender’s assured full Premier League debut, Maresca believes there could be a bright future ahead for Acheampong, as long as he keeps grabbing his opportunities with both hands.

‘Today I think the 11 that were on the pitch were all good,’ began Maresca. ‘Pedro [Neto] was very good, Jadon was very good, Nico [Jackson] was good, Cole was good, Enzo [Fernandez] was good, Moi [Caicedo] was good, Josh was good.

‘For me all the players were good today, but if I have to decide for one, I think for sure Josh was our best player, because of his age, because it was his first game.

‘For me Josh can be a top player for this club, but he needs the right path, the right moment. With young players you have to decide which moment is right for them. We decided yesterday was his moment because we saw that he is ready and I think he showed how good he is.

‘Now, again because of his age, he needs to slow down, work hard and take the next chance. We knew already that Josh is good enough and he showed that he is ready.’

Maresca also discussed the performance of striker Jackson, who grew visibly frustrated as the game went on, after going close to netting a second Chelsea goal on a few occasions before being replaced by Marc Guiu shortly prior to Crystal Palace’s equaliser.

Our head coach insists that change was not because of any concerns with Jackson’s efforts – quite the opposite – and Enzo highlighted the Senegal international’s good work to continue getting into scoring positions, even when things are going against him.

‘The reason that we changed Nico was because he was pressing and he was getting a bit tired with 10 or 15 minutes to go, and Marc was fresh with new energy.

‘First for a striker, sometimes all the chances they have, they score. Sometimes they have chances and they do not score. The important thing is that Nico had two or three clear chances yesterday, so that means he is there, he is ready.

‘Hopefully next time he can be a bit more lucky, but overall I think Nico had a good game yesterday.’