Enzo Maresca issues verdict on VAR controversy as Chelsea beat Burnley: 'Chaos inside the box!'

Chalobah didn't seem to understand what was happening, however, with the defender touching the ball with his hand before passing it back to his goalkeeper.

Burnley felt they should have had a penalty.

Responding to the incident, Maresca said: "We conceded some chaos inside the box, but it’s part of the game."

Scott Parker felt his side should have been awarded the penalty.

He said: "At the time I didn’t even notice. I have just seen it back, it does look like a penalty. The ball’s live, the keeper’s rolled it. I’m not sitting here being critical, but I suppose that is why we’ve got VAR. I don’t know whether they looked at it. It’s one of those things."

Pedro Neto scored the opening goal with a brilliant diving header in the first half, while Enzo Fernandez made sure of the points with a late second-half goal.

As well as resting Moises Caicedo and Wesley Fofana, Maresca withdrew captain Reece James at half-time.

Maresca said: "It was a tough game for many reasons – after the international break, 12 o’clock in the morning, barely awake, this type of pitch, also we need to manage players, so it was a very tricky game.

He added: "The way the players competed, another clean sheet – they had just one important chance in the second half.

"Overall I think we deserved to win the game and we are happy.

The Chelsea boss explained: "The idea was especially to manage Reece, this is the reason why he played 45 minutes, it was planned.

"Then the rest, Pedro and Enzo, they had a good international break in terms of recovering energy and recovering also from the injury, and the rest I think they were good."

Chelsea now returns to London to prepare for home matches against Barcelona on Tuesday and Arsenal next weekend as they look to build on a run of eight wins from 10 games in all competitions.

Maresca said: “We are confident, we are doing well. Today we could have done many, many things better for sure, but it was important to win the game. We are confident and we are ready to prepare for Tuesday and Sunday."

It is three defeats in a row for Burnley, who started strongly but created very few meaningful chances.

Nevertheless, boss Scott Parker was happy with the efforts of his men, he said: "My overall feeling is very, very pleased with the performance.

"I say that lightly because obviously we’ve not got anything out of the game, but the first half I thought we were brilliant.

"We were playing against a huge quality team here in Chelsea that at any moment can really hurt teams and I think you’ve seen that over the course of the season.

"The slight critical edge is maybe those half-chances we have in the first half, maybe one goes in or the final little bit of detail."

Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter