Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca has revealed that, in addition to posting a public apology on his Instagram account after receiving a red card against Manchester United, goalkeeper Robert Sanchez also
acknowledged his mistake in the dressing room following the defeat to the Red Devils.
Sanchez was shown the red card inside the opening five minutes of the match at Old Trafford after he brought down United winger Bryan Mbeumo outside the penalty area.
After the game, Sanchez took to his Instagram story to apologise for the unfortunate incident.
“Rob, for a long time, has been excellent. Unfortunately, he made a mistake the other day and he recognised it. I know he made a post on Instagram in public, but he also did so after the game in the changing room,” Maresca was quoted as saying by Chelsea’s official website.
“He (Sanchez) recognised it was a mistake. He is an intelligent person and he recognised that,” Maresca added.
All eyes were on a rain-lashed Old Trafford for the early evening kick-off on Sunday, September 21, with United head coach Ruben Amorim in desperate need of a victory after a terrible start to the season.
Maresca made frantic personnel changes to compensate for the loss of Sanchez, but the game became an exercise in attack versus defence.
United skipper Bruno Fernandes made the breakthrough in the 14th minute, prodding home from close range in his 200th Premier League match.
Casemiro doubled the lead before the Brazilian midfielder was shown a second yellow card on the stroke of half-time for tugging back Andrey Santos.
Trevoh Chalobah brought Chelsea back into the game with a bullet header 10 minutes from time.
But United survived some nervy moments to record just their second victory of the season, lifting them into ninth place as Chelsea suffered their first league defeat this term.
The red card meant that Sanchez sat out Chelsea’s Carabao Cup match against Lincoln, which they won 2-1 at the LNER Stadium on Tuesday.
