Chelsea still “a long way away” from what we expect claims ESPN pundit | OneFootball

Chelsea have made it through to the Club World Cup final after a 2-0 win over Fluminense last night, and on ESPN the pundits lined up to talk about the Blues’ tournament and their progress under Enzo Maresca in the 12 months since he was appointed.

Shaka Hislop was reluctant to give out too much credit, but had to admit that there were improvements in terms of the results we’re getting, especially compared to previous years. He still insisted that fans would be expecting better football as well as results.

Maresca helped get “limping” Chelsea back where they need to be says pundit

Enzo Maresca speaks in a press conference at the Club World Cup.

“Listen, I don’t think it’s any surprise that this version of Chelsea is the Chelsea that we’ve come to know. They’ve been able to grind results out, particularly last season,” the former West Ham goalkeeper said.

“But this is a Chelsea that’s sort of limped over the last 2 or 3 years. Maresca seems to be getting things right, he got results last season in the Conference League, finishes top 4. So they’re on the path. But this is still a Chelsea that’s a long way away from what we expect them to be, and from what their fans hope to see of them this season.”

Chelsea can show everyone their new level with final win

The reluctance to give out too much credit is because of the soft draw we’ve had in this competition, as Hislop went on to point out:

“Whoever wins that other semi final between Real Madrid and PSG will be a far different test from what they’ve experienced so far this [in this tournament]”

Beat one of those two giants in the final and there will be no doubting that we’ve gone up a level and can consider ourselves real competitors again.