Chelsea beating Tottenham on Thursday night means Italian manager Enzo Maresca could lead the Blues back to Champions League football for the first time since Roman Abramovich sold the club in May 2022.
In that respect, it’s astonishing that a man who is on course to be the best manager under BlueCo ownership is under more scrutiny than some of the managers way below him in the Premier League table.
Since the takeover, Thomas Tuchel, Graham Potter, Bruno Saltor, Frank Lampard, and Mauricio Pochettino have all come and gone at Chelsea for different reasons. But Maresca, plucked from Championship side Leicester, is on track by all metrics and could deliver a trophy as well as return Champions League football to Stamford Bridge.
Why Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca is the answer
There’s no guarantee that Maresca will get another season if this one doesn’t end well, however. He’d be aware that his predecessor, Mauricio Pochettino, won his last five games, but not even that was enough to save him.
However, against Tottenham, Maresca’s calm and confident demeanuor suggested he’s a man on a mission. At a time when some might panic and change their ways, he’s showing that he knows exactly what he’s doing.
The Reece James Decision
There’s been a lot of talk about the best position for Reece James, and given he played for England and scored a brilliant free kick, it would have been a very delicate decision to leave him out of the starting XI against Spurs. But that’s exactly what Maresca did, and even when he brought him on, it was as a midfielder firstly and later as a member of the back five.
The message has been clear, and the line has been drawn. If James is going to be an absolute superstar, he will have to do so by obeying the demands of his manager - just like he did against Tottenham.
Take his place on the bench, and when he comes on, he plays to the manager’s instructions. What decisions like this do, though, is send a message to the entire squad. If the club captain, who is highly rated by everyone, is being left on the bench for important derby games, then everyone must pull their socks up for the most important run-in for the club in recent times.
The Robert Sanchez situation
Against Spurs, Robert Sanchez kept a clean sheet, albeit with the intervention of VAR to rightly rule out a Pape Matar Sarr strike from 20 yards. Had the goal stood, Sanchez would have had to deal with millions of online abuse from Chelsea fans.
The goalkeeping there left a lot to be desired, but his manager has neither wavered nor succumbed under pressure to drop him entirely. There was a period when he played Filip Jorgensen instead, but it’s crystal clear that Sanchez is Maresca’s trusted pair of hands, and he will either sink or swim with him.
He would have felt vindicated after what was a hard-fought clean sheet and which inclduded a brilliant, smart save from Son Heung-min in the 89th minute. Again, when many have panicked about Sanchez, Maresca has trusted his goalkeeper, and that could be the difference between playing in the Champions League and missing out.
Not afraid to call out the fans
One of the best atmospheres in recent times at Stamford Bridge has been when Chelsea face Tottenham, and Thursday night was no different. There are rivalries, and then there are grudge matches. Chelsea versus Tottenham is a grudge match, and every fan understands that. But every Chelsea fan was on edge when the fourth official’s board went up. With 12 minutes remaining, Maresca turned to the fans just behind his dugout and urged them to keep helping the team.
He shouted, “Help us, help us!” as he demanded more from the home fans. It was no surprise that even Levi Colwill, in his interview with Sky Sports after the game, admitted that the home fans played a role in them getting the three points.
Colwill said: “The fans were amazing out there. They got us through that, I can tell you that.”
Maresca is smart and crafty. He knows when to push the buttons with the fans. Having been tasked with moulding this multi-billion-pound project back into title contenders, wins like the one against Tottenham will certainly count in his favour when the dreaded end-of-season assessment is being carried out.
But however it ends, one thing is certain, the Italian will not panic and will back his players and methods to get this team back to fighting for big things. The hope is that Thursday night will be a start.
