Chelsea secured a 3-1 win over Astana in their latest UEFA Europa Conference League fixtures

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca felt his side delivered a “solid” performance against Astana in Kazakhstan as the Blues ran out 3-1 winners to preserve their 100 per cent record in the UEFA Europa Conference League. Chelsea sit top of the standings after the latest round of games having won five from five, scoring 21 goals and conceding just four.

Marc Guiu opened the scoring after 14 minutes before an own goal, which Guiu was involved in, soon after gave Chelsea a comfortable lead. Renato Veiga added another goal for the visitors on 39 minutes before Marin Tomasov scored for the home side on the stroke of half time but Astana did not cause the Blues any further trouble. On 18-year-old Guiu, Maresca said: “Marc is doing well. Since we started he has been working hard. We have Nicolas Jackson and Christo Nkunku who are doing well, but when he had the chance today Marc played in the right way.”

The Chelsea manager admitted the weather, with the game played in temperatures of around minus 10, the state of the pitch and the long travel were not ideal for his side. Chelsea had an eight-hour flight over 3,700 miles, as the plane carrying the squad was unable to fly direct to Almaty as it avoided airspace over conflict zones in Ukraine, Russia and Syria. The Blues will land back in England in the early hours of Friday before preparing to take on Brentford on Sunday. That game has already been pushed back to 7pm.

“It was a solid performance,” said Maresca. “We knew it was quite cold and we tried to adapt quickly. The players did fantastically with the weather conditions, the long journey yesterday, and the pitch was not ideal for us. Overall I’m very happy for the players. We will land at around six o’clock (in the morning) UK time, but we are going to try to prepare the game in the best way we can as we have always done this season.

“I’m also happy for the young players who helped us win the game. I was impressed by all of them. The ones who started, Tyrique [George], Sam [Rak-Sakyi] and Josh [Acheampong] all did very good. So I’m very happy for them and the ones that came on in the second half, I’m pleased.”

There was a travelling contingent of Chelsea fans, who also endured the long journey to watch the victory. The fixture was played in the Kazakh capital of Almaty due renovation work at Astana’s stadium, which is over 600 miles away. Maresca added: “It’s a very long journey and we are very thankful [to the fans]. Even for them, the conditions were not ideal, but they were there and we really appreciate that. Now, as I said, we need their support on Sunday.”