CHELSEA boss Enzo Maresca says it would be dangerous to take Barrow’s threat lightly.
The Cumbrians visit Stamford Bridge on Tuesday for a Third Round Carabao Cup clash with the London side.
For many the Premier League outfit should be comfortable winners over a side 64 places below them in the football pyramid.
But the Chelsea boss is aware of the Bluebirds, who overcame Championship club Derby on penalties in the previous round and have won five of their seven league fixtures this term, being a potential banana skin.
“It’s dangerous because football is full of these kind of games that you think it’s an easy game and then it’s a tricky game,” said the Italian.
“Probably in this moment this is the worst game for us. We need to take it seriously and we cannot allow ourselves to drop a little bit.”
Maresca admits that Premier League is main focus but is quick to point out he is also taking other competitions seriously.
“Probably because of the last two years, we cannot allow ourselves to make, ‘OK, the first target is this’,” said Maresca.
“We need to go game by game and to see where we arrive close and fight for that. I don’t see in this moment any competition better than any other one.
“For sure, the main one is the Premier League, always. It’s the competition where you try to do your best always but in terms of, ‘this is the most important; this is not important’, it’s not for us.
“We need to take every game in the same way and then we’ll see at the end if we are close and then go for it.”
Meanwhile, Maresca says he has no doubt £30million signing Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall will be a success at Stamford Bridge once he mentally adapts to his new surroundings.
Midfielder Dewsbury-Hall, who followed Maresca from Leicester to west London during the summer, is in line to start this evening’s cup tie.
The 26-year-old is yet to begin a Premier League match for the Blues and been restricted to just 43 minutes of top-flight action across three substitute appearances.
Dewsbury-Hall, who missed the 1-0 win at Bournemouth on September 14 through illness, previously started both legs of Chelsea’s Conference League play-off win over Swiss club Servette.
“I’m very happy with Kiernan,” said Maresca.
“We also need to understand that Kiernan was the main player at Leicester. He arrived here and now he’s not the main player. He’s one of the players.
“For him, for any player in the world, you need to adapt. Mentally you need to adapt because you go from, ‘OK, I’m the main player here’ to ‘I’m one of the players’.
“That period requires a little bit of time, that you understand that and you adapt.
“I am completely happy with Kiernan, the way he’s doing. It’s just a matter to adapt a little bit but overall I don’t have any doubt for Kiernan.”
Maresca is poised to rotate his squad for the first of four successive home matches in all competitions on the back of picking up 10 points from the last 12 available in the league.
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