Chelsea must accept clear Estevao Willian reality and Enzo Maresca has already explained why

Estevao Willian celebrates scoring the winning goal for Chelsea against Liverpool (Image: Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC)

Chelsea supporters could not be more excited for what the future holds for Estevao Willian - and rightly so - but expectations need to be managed.

All the talk is about the little Brazilian right now after his match-winning goal in the crucial victory over Liverpool at the weekend. Estevao entered the pitch with 15 minutes of normal time remaining and produced a remarkable performance, topped off with the winning goal deep into stoppage time to send Stamford Bridge into ecstasy.

Understandably, there are calls for Estevao to start more for the Blues given his impact - not only on Saturday but throughout his short time in west London so far. The 18-year-old has been in and out of the team under Enzo Maresca , who has an abundance of wide options to choose from, with 265 minutes from a possible 630 in the Premier League, with four starts and two appearances off the bench.

Estevao has been restricted to cameo appearances in both of Chelsea's Champions League matches thus far, and was also named on the bench for the win against Lincoln City in the Carabao Cup. While Maresca cannot speak highly enough about the teenage Brazil international, there is clearly a sense of trying to manage the expectation on his shoulders given the remarkable reputation he has already created for himself at such a young age.

In fact, back during Chelsea's 13-day pre-season campaign, Maresca actually detailed why pressure should not be put on Estevao. "We need to pay a little bit more attention, because first of all he's from the other part of the world and also he's very, very young," said Maresca. "So we need to pay attention.

"As I said, [he is] not under pressure, give him happiness, give him time, he needs to adapt. Hopefully we can give him minutes, so he's even more happy. But for sure, he's a talented player.

"For me, the biggest mistake we can do is to put him under pressure. He's very young, he needs to adapt."

With the way he is using him so far, it is clear Maresca is trying to first of all, manage the expectation and pressure on the teenager, but also to avoid burnout; playing too many minutes. There are already fears over Barcelona winger Lamine Yamal and the risk of his career being cut short due to the extraordinary amount of minutes he has played for his club over the past two seasons.

Yamal, who is the same age as Estevao, has played a ridiculous 8000 minutes for Barca over the past couple of campaigns since breaking into the first team and showing the world he is one of the very best even at such an early part of his career. Maresca will be mindful of that, and other youngsters it has happened to, when he decides how to use Estevao for the remainder of the season.