Chelsea head coach Enzo Mariska held a press conference before his team's anticipated match against Tottenham in the Premier League, during which he spoke about the incident involving Liam Diallo's red card, discipline within the team, and the Blues' preparations for the upcoming match.

Mariska said about his conversation with Liam Diallo after the red card: "There was no need for me to talk much with Liam, I spoke with him and he knows exactly what happened, he is aware of the situation and realizes that he made a mistake, and that’s it, nothing more."

Regarding his frankness and criticism of the player after the previous match: "That’s a question for the players themselves, when I say we need to avoid red cards, it means we should avoid them, I always say what I see as right, sometimes a red card is hard to avoid, and sometimes we can avoid it."

On the issue of discipline within the team: "I think some of the red cards we received could have been avoided, the same applies to some yellow cards."

On how to improve discipline in the team: "We must learn from these situations, we need to improve in this aspect, and I am sure that over time we will become much better."

On Liam Diallo's level and development: "Perhaps because I am not English, when I translate from Italian to English, the meaning may differ slightly, what I meant after the match is that Liam on the pitch focuses more on fighting with defenders instead of focusing on the other details of the game, I know him well since coaching him with the Manchester City Under-21 team, like Romeo Lavia and Cole Palmer, he is a great player and will be very important for us, but he needs to develop some aspects like the other players."

On the upcoming match against Tottenham: "Tottenham is a very strong team, they finished last season by winning the Europa League, and they started this season excellently, and since the match is a derby, it will definitely be a tough encounter."

On Tottenham's weakness at home: "I don’t know the reason for that, that’s a question that should be directed to them."

On the readiness of the young players: "Jamie Gittens and Alejandro Garnacho are adapting well to our training style, both are performing excellently, and we want our wingers to score and create goals, and it’s great that we have more than one option in this position."

On Chelsea conceding goals from set pieces: "Set pieces are part of the game, sometimes you score from them and sometimes you concede, it’s very difficult to defend against them every time, and it happens with all teams."

On tactical changes during matches: "Sometimes we move Romeo Lavia or Moisés Caicedo to play alongside the defenders, depending on the opponent's positioning and the areas of space, the goal is to create better attacking solutions and get players out of congested areas."

On facing long balls from Tottenham: "Yes, we are working on this, we have trained on it well for sure."

On Liam Diallo's apology after the match: "Yes, he apologized immediately after the match in the locker room, he apologized to me personally and also to all his teammates."

On Cole Palmer's injury situation: "I met him this morning at breakfast, I jokingly said to him: (In a week, you’ll be back), and he laughed, the plan remains the same, we wait and hope he returns soon."