Chelsea's Enzo Maresca sack stance revealed after back-to-back defeats to Man Utd and Brighton

Chelsea have no plans to panic and sack head coach Enzo Maresca, even if they were to lose the next two games against Benfica and Liverpool, football.london understands.

Some Blues supporters were calling for the Italian to be dismissed as the Blues’ poor run of recent form continued at the weekend with defeat to Brighton at Stamford Bridge. However, it was just Chelsea's fifth defeat in 24 competitive matches in all competitions - a run that stretches way back to April 17, and four of those losses have come when the Blues have been down to 10 men.

The recent trip to Bayern Munich was Chelsea’s only defeat when they finished with 11 versus 11 on the pitch, with losses against Newcastle United, Flamengo, Manchester United and Brighton, most recently, all marred by sending offs.

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Maresca demanded his players to learn from their mistakes at the weekend after Trevoh Chalobah was shown a straight red card for denying a goal-scoring opportunity on 53 minutes, with Chelsea a goal to the good at the time before eventually losing 3-1 at Stamford Bridge.

"For sure, you cannot continue to make mistakes, also because they are big mistakes in terms of the game changing, the red card at Manchester United and the red card today," Maresca said on Saturday afternoon.

"The message that we just said inside the dressing room has been quite clear: against any team in the Premier League, you cannot continue to give away presents, because what we are doing at the moment is to give away presents in terms of red cards. That is a big mistake because the game completely changed."

Behdad Eghbali, the co-controlling owner, as well as sporting directors Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley headed down the tunnel at full-time and towards the dressing room, with many supporters spotting this on their way out of Stamford Bridge. That, though, is fairly normal for the Chelsea chiefs, who have done that consistently during their time at the club.

They do this after all home games to try and create a bond with the squad, and often debrief with the head coach regarding the match. With the way Stamford Bridge is laid out, they have to cross the pitch in order to get there, however, which means whenever they do this, they are always there for everyone to see.

football.london understands the target this season for Chelsea remains the same as club chiefs aim for a top-four finish in the Premier League. Whether that’s in fourth, third, second or first-place, the Blues are targeting another Champions League finish and that target has been made clear to Maresca.

Sources close to the club believe Chelsea's rocky start to the campaign has been somewhat overblown and Maresca, who won two major honours during his debut season with the club, still has the full backing of senior figures at the club.