Enzo Maresca reflects on his first three months in charge
As Enzo Maresca enters his second international break as Chelsea boss, having been in charge of the Blues for just three months, we find ourselves in fourth position in the Premier League table, just four points below the league leaders, and have picked up 14 of the 21 points available. Our head coach is happy.
The Blues have only lost one domestic match this season and that came in Maresca’s first game in charge against Manchester City, a side many consider to be the best in the world.
Since then, we have won all three of our away games – with league leaders Liverpool the only other team to have a 100 per cent record so far – and at home we have dominated large parts of all three matches post-City, beating Brighton & Hove Albion 4-2 last weekend and drawing 1-1 with Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest.
Sunday’s draw with Forest was our fourth consecutive home match, with the Brighton victory coming either side of midweek wins against Barrow in the Carabao Cup and Gent in the Conference League.
The Blues enjoyed two-thirds of possession against Forest and had 17 attempts at goal compared to ten but had to settle for a point.
But Maresca stressed: ‘Yes [I am happy]. When we started the season, to think by the second international break you are fourth, the way the team are playing, the way the team are learning to play different kinds of games, for sure I am very happy.
‘We have 14 points from seven games, it is important, but for me it is also important to see the way we got 14 points – it has been in different ways, in different types of games, home and away. Against a team like today, who sit back and try to be aggressive, you have to use different weapons, but I think in general, we are very happy with where we are but for sure we can do many things better.’
Chelsea have nine points from nine on the road whilst at Stamford Bridge we have picked up five points from a possible 12, something which was highlighted by one of the journalists after our draw with Forest.
However, Maresca has highlighted previously that performances are key for our head coach, highlighting we arguably deserved to win the two games we drew with Forest and Crystal Palace, whilst in the away fixture with Bournemouth we won thanks to a late Christopher Nkunku goal when the display was maybe not as impressive as our home matches.
Maresca said: ‘[In terms of] the reason why we have won more games away compared to at home, I prefer to analyse the games. Today we did everything to win the game and we deserved to win the game. Sometimes you don’t score.
‘Against Palace, more or less it was similar to today so there is no reason why at the moment we have won more away and not as many games at home.
‘We have played four games at home in a row and we have won three and drawn today so it was a good point.’