What Enzo Maresca was spotted doing at half-time before Chelsea's comeback vs Lincoln
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Former Chelsea striker Chris Sutton noticed Enzo Maresca's half-time approach in Tuesday's 2-1 Carabao Cup win over Lincoln City.
It was nowhere near as smooth sailing as expected, but Chelsea managed to avoid an upset in the third round of the Carabao Cup against the League One opposition in the end.
Maresca made several rotations to the starting line-up as expected, but on paper, it should have been a good enough team to win with relative ease.
Obviously, it was not the case.
After a disappointing first-half performance, in which Lincoln managed to get nine shots to Chelsea's three, including Rob Street's opening goal, Chelsea came out with a mission.
It took the visitors just three minutes after the break to level the score, thanks to Tyrique George's strike, and two more minutes to pull ahead through Facundo Buonanotte's debut goal for the club.
These two goals proved enough to secure Maresca's men the win and progression into the fourth round.
It was a game of two very different halves for Chelsea, and Sutton pointed out how ready Chelsea looked before the start of the second period.
"I don't know if Maresca is one for the hairdryer treatment type or volleying teacups everywhere, but he sent his players out early after half time," Sutton told BBC Radio 5 Live.
"He was clearly peeved to send them out so early, Lincoln were out three or four minutes after.
"Chelsea saw it through pretty well in the end. It was a good win against a hardened, streetwise, battling Lincoln side."
As Maresca himself admitted after the game, it was pretty clear that his team were surprised by Lincoln's physicality early in the game.
The Italian head coach made some tweaks that had an immediate impact at the break.
" I told them (the players) it was not an easy game," Maresca explained.
"That is why I was so annoyed in the first half, because we know that we needed to do better. Overall, they did well."
Chelsea will discover their fourth round opponents on Wednesday night, with their next fixture coming against Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League.
Gerry Crisandy is a freelance writer who has covered Chelsea for many years. His work has been published on The Chelsea Chronicle and Pride of London. He grew up idolising Michael Ballack and is a firm believer in expected goals.