Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca has heaped praised on Romeo Lavia after the midfielder's performance in the 3-1 victory over Liverpool.
Aside from one substitute appearance, Lavia missed the entire season in his first year at Stamford Bridge on the back of a big-money transfer from Southampton.
The Belgium international has seen injuries continue to restrict him during 2024-25, yet he has been influential when called upon by his boss.
On Sunday, the 21-year-old made his 10th Premier League start of the campaign as the Blues earned a potentially-pivotal win over the recently-crowned champions.
Lavia played a key role in Enzo Fernandez's third-minute opener before an own goal from Jarell Quansah and a late Cole Palmer penalty sealed a deserved triumph for the West Londoners.
"We are a better team with Romeo"
Speaking at a post-match press conference, Maresca was quick to pay credit to Lavia who came through 78 minutes in the contest with the Merseyside giants.
As quoted by football.london, the Italian said: "You can see that we are a better team with Romeo. Unfortunately, he has been injured for most of the season.
"Probably in this moment he has been the difference between us and many clubs because we had many important players for us that have been injured. Romeo is one of them. Wes Fofana is another one.
"We had Nico [Jackson] for two months [out]. Romeo showed again today how important he is for the team and how good he is."
While Lavia indicated to the substitutes' bench that he wanted to be substituted prior to his withdrawal, there is currently no indication that he has suffered an injury issue.
By reaching the 78th-minute mark, it was Lavia's second longest appearance in a Chelsea shirt, with the highest coming against Aston Villa on December 1 when he featured for 86 minutes.
What next for Lavia?
Chelsea supporters will be anxious to see whether Lavia can make three successive starts in the Premier League for just the second time when they face Newcastle United at St James' Park on May 11.
Lavia is ineligible to face Djurgardens IF in the second leg of their Conference League semi-final on Thursday evening due to being left out of the squad for the knockout stages. body check tags ::
