Chelsea's Maresca fumes over 'stupid, embarrassing' Delap red card

Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca was left fuming over Liam Delap's late red card in Wednesday's 4-3 League Cup win at Wolverhampton Wanderers, his team's fifth red card in the last nine matches.

Striker Delap, making his comeback from a hamstring injury after nearly two months as a second-half substitute, got booked when he pushed Yerson Mosquera in the 79th minute. He then fouled Emmanuel Agbadou just seven minutes later and got sent off.

"For sure, today also we had a very stupid red card that is completely unnecessary," Maresca told reporters. Asked whether the red card was deserved, the manager said, "Absolutely yes. Stupid foul."

Maresca said it was "embarrassing" to get a red card like Delap did. "Because it's two yellow cards in seven minutes. Both I think we can avoid," he said. "After the yellow card, I told him four or five times to keep calm. But Liam is a player that when he’s inside the pitch, he’ll be playing the game for himself and he struggles to realise and to listen around him."

Maresca had earlier said he did not intend to "punish" players for picking up red cards.

"I have four kids, when they do something wrong, I do not punish them. I try to teach them to do the right things. I try to do this with the players too," the manager said last week.

Chelsea, ninth in the Premier League, visit Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday.