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LONDON — Enzo Maresca is already walking on a tightrope at Chelsea, but the club’s new head coach was spared an ordeal at the hands of Manchester City as his team began its new Premier League campaign.
A 2-0 defeat against the champions is an occupational hazard, but it only gets more difficult from this point on for Maresca.
Any team can be turned over by Pep Guardiola’s City. They are chasing an unprecedented fifth successive 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.
“We were against the champions today,” Maresca said. “We will continue and win games. [City] are a master in this kind of moment.
“We had two or three chances. They are a master of keeping hold of the ball. The performance was there, and that is the main thing. Day by day, this team is getting better.”
Progress perhaps, but acceptable defeats don’t really exist at Chelsea. In England, only City have won more major trophies than Chelsea over the past decade, so standards are high and expectations remain undimmed, despite the upheaval of two chaotic years at the club since the BlueCo consortium became owners in May 2022.
Yet even though this was day one of the new season, there’s still bubbling anger within the Chelsea fan base about events at the club this summer.
Those include the departure of former coach Mauricio Pochettino; the recruitment of Maresca — a coach with no Premier League experience — from Leicester City; the continuing churn of players in and out of the revolving door at the club (with 10 being signed and 20 moving on); and finally, the treatment of home-grown players such as Conor Gallagher and Trevoh Chalobah, who are both being made to train away from the first team while efforts are being made to offload them.
The best way to banish negativity at any football club is by winning, and in Maresca’s seven games in charge — six friendlies and the clash with City — he has registered just one win, so all of the background noise that has helped spark the supporter unrest only grows louder.
Just moments after Haaland had given City the lead in the 18th minute, the Chelsea fans chanted the name of Gallagher — the England midfielder was not in the matchday squad as talks continue over a move to Atlético Madrid — while there were also noisy groans and complaints about the slow build-up play by the home side as Chelsea attempted to get back into the game.
Maresca said last week that the owners have told him he is under no pressure to finish in the top four this season, saying that they are prepared to give time and patience as he attempts to introduce a more deliberate, possession-based approach at the club.
However, the owners haven’t taken into account the demands of the supporters who have witnessed repeated success over the past two decades under coaches such as Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, Antonio Conte and Thomas Tuchel playing a more direct and fast-paced game. So if the team doesn’t win and the manager demands a style of play that the supporters don’t necessarily want, there will be trouble ahead, regardless of what the owners may or may not have told their new coach.
That said, no team should be judged against City. It is how Maresca’s team shapes up in their next two league games against Wolverhampton Wanderers and Crystal Palace that will tell us whether the new coach has a plan that the players are prepared to buy into or if real turbulence lies ahead.
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 hampered by long-term injuries, were part of the starting XI. Fofana and Lavia shone brighter than Nkunku, but there is no doubting the quality of any of them.
City were just too strong in all departments, 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 and Kovacic and Kevin De Bruyne won the midfield battle, so even though Chelsea had moments when they threatened the City goal, Guardiola’s side were always a level ahead of the home side.
Perhaps the state of flux at Chelsea won’t disappear until the transfer window closes later this month and Maresca has a firm sense of which players he will be able to 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 both left out of the matchday squad.
Maresca said postmatch that some players will “have to leave,” but he has so many to work with — over 40 first-team players at this moment in time — that there is no guarantee that the right players will stay and the right ones will leave.
Chelsea will need calm and patience, and Maresca certainly needs both. But the fans are already not liking what they see, so once again, be prepared for storm clouds over Stamford Bridge in the weeks ahead.