‘Embarrassing our manager is taking that…’ – Eagle-eyed Chelsea fans fuming after spotting Maresca’s gesture to Timber

CHELSEA fans were not impressed with Enzo Maresca after he was “disrespected” by Arsenal’s Jurrien Timber.

Blues head coach Maresca, 45, watched his side fall to a disappointing 1-0 defeat at the Emirates.

Getty

Enzo Maresca and Arsenal’s Jurrien Timber had a bizarre altercation on Sunday[/caption]

Sky Sports

Timber was overhead on Sky’s cameras telling the Chelsea boss to “try harder”[/caption]

Rex

Maresca was then seen shaking hands with the Arsenal defender[/caption]

Mikel Merino scored the only goal of the game as Arsenal kept their faint title hopes alive.

The loss leaves Chelsea back in fourth place, five points behind high-flying Nottingham Forest.

Maresca and Timber were involved in an incident during the closing stages of the match in North London.

The Arsenal full-back was caught on camera leaning in and telling Maresca on the sideline to: “Try harder, try harder.”

Maresca responded with his mouth covered, before Timber cheekily held out his own hand.

The Chelsea boss shook it, with play resuming deep into stoppage time on the field.

The footage quickly went viral – and some Chelsea fans were not impressed at Maresca’s light-hearted reaction.

One fumed on X: “Absolutely embarrassing our manager is taking that.”

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Another said: “Imagine this with any other Chelsea manager ever, oh wait it wouldn’t happen.”

While a third commented: “This is so embarrassing man.”

A fourth added: “This is not Chelsea we used to know.”

And a fifth responded: “Elite manager would have been fuming at this point.”

Chelsea suffered a blow in the run-up to kick-off with top scorer Cole Palmer ruled out.

The England star was named in Thomas Tuchel’s first Three Lions squad earlier this week.

But it remains to be seen if he’ll be fit enough to play in the March internationals after suffering a knock in training.

Maresca said: “He had an injury yesterday during the session.

“It was a very light session and that’s why we think it’s nothing important.

“We still need to wait and we hope he can be back after the international break.”