LONDON — Enzo Maresca is already walking a tightrope at Chelsea, but the club's new manager was spared a stern test at the hands of Manchester City at the start of their new Premier League campaign. A 2-0 defeat to the champions is a professional risk, but it only gets tougher for Maresca from now on.
Pep Guardiola’s City can beat any team. They are seeking an unprecedented fifth consecutive title this season and goals from Erling Haaland (his 91st in 100 games for the club) and Mateo Kovacic at Stamford Bridge secured what was probably one of the most predictable results of the opening weekend of the 2024-25 season.
“Today we are facing the champions,” said Maresca. “We will go on and win games. They (City) are masters in this kind of situation.”
“We had two or three chances. They are masters at keeping possession. The performance was there and that's the main thing. Day by day, this team is improving.”
There may have been progress, but acceptable defeats do not exist at Chelsea. In England, only City have won more major trophies than Chelsea in the past decade, so standards are high and expectations remain intact, despite the upheaval that has been a chaotic two years at the club since the BlueCo consortium became owners in May 2022.
However, despite today being the first day of the new season, there is still simmering anger within Chelsea supporters over events at the club this summer.
The departure of former manager Mauricio Pochettino, the signing of Maresca (a manager with no Premier League experience) from Leicester City, the continued flow of players in and out of the club with 10 signing and 20 leaving and lastly the treatment of homegrown players such as Conor Gallagher and Trevoh Chalobah who are being forced to train away from the first team while efforts are made to offload them.
The best way to banish negativity at any football club is to win games and Maresca has now taken charge of seven (six friendlies and the City clash) and recorded just one victory, so all the background noise that has helped fuel fan anger only grows louder.
Just moments after Haaland gave City the lead in the 18th minute, Chelsea fans were chanting Gallagher’s name – the England midfielder was not in the match-day squad as talks continue over a transfer to Atletico Madrid – while there were also loud moans and complaints about the home side’s slow build-up to the game as Chelsea tried to claw their way back into the game.
Maresca said last week that the owners have told him there is no pressure on him to finish in the top four this season, and that they are prepared to give him time and patience as he tries to introduce a more deliberate, possession-based approach at the club.
However, the owners have not heeded the demands of the fans, who have seen repeated success over the past two decades under managers such as Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, Antonio Conte and Thomas Tuchel, playing a more direct and faster game. So if the team does not win and the manager demands a style of play that the fans do not necessarily want, there will be problems down the road, regardless of what the owners have or have not said to their new manager.
That said, no team should be judged on City. How Maresca's side perform in their next two league games against Wolverhampton Wanderers and Crystal Palace will tell us whether the new manager has a plan that the players are willing to accept or whether real turmoil is on the way.
Maresca started without any of the club's new signings, but Wesley Fofana, Romeo Lavia and Christopher Nkunku, previous big signings whose time at the club has been blighted by long-term injuries, were in the starting XI. Fofana and Lavia shone more than Nkunku, but there is no doubting the quality of any of them.
City were simply too strong in every department, despite having Phil Foden, Kyle Walker, John Stones and Jack Grealish on the bench and midfielder Rodri not even in the squad due to an extended break after helping Spain to Euro 2024 success in July.
Wingers Jérémy Doku and Savinho dominated against their direct opponents and Kovacic and Kevin De Bruyne won the midfield battle, so although Chelsea had moments when they threatened City's goal, Guardiola's side were always a level ahead of the home side.
The uncertainty at Chelsea may not go away until the transfer window closes later this month and Maresca has a clear idea of which players he can work with. It is clear that Gallagher and Chalobah have no future at the club and the same seems to apply to Ben Chilwell and Raheem Sterling, who were left out of the squad.
Maresca said after the game that some players “will have to go” but he has so many to work with (more than 40 first-team players at the moment) that there is no guarantee the right players will stay and the right ones will go.
Chelsea will need calm and patience, and Maresca certainly needs both. But fans no longer like what they see, so once again, prepare for storm clouds over Stamford Bridge in the coming weeks.
