We improved — Maresca learns from mistakes as promised

Chelsea showed, in glimpses, that they have learnt how to better cope with a numerical disadvantage, as they held on after a red card to Joao Pedro to beat Benfica. 

The Blues welcomed an Eagles side stewarded by their old boss, Jose Mourinho, to Stamford Bridge on Tuesday evening, and thanks to a Richard Rios own goal in the 16th minute, they triumphed. 

The Blues have been reduced to ten men in each of their last three matches. In the first two games, they collapsed after the sending off, suffering 2-1 and 3-1 defeats to Manchester United and Brighton respectively. 

And while Joao Pedro's red card came in the 6th minute of injury time, Chelsea gave little away in what remained of the match. Maresca noted that as an improvement and praised his team. 

“A good thing is we are improving and we can win with 10 players,” Maresca said about Joao Pedro’s red card.  “But I think he did not touch on the second one but the dynamic of it is that it was dangerous. For us it is a journey that started this season and game after game, we get better."

Pulse Sports reported earlier that Maresca admitted to making mistakes after the red cards against Manchester United and Brighton. The Italian tactician said he was learning from those incidents, and the victory against Benfica is a step in the right direction.