Chelsea’s one position which is still up for grabs as Enzo Maresca gives forgotten man surprise start | OneFootball

It’s pretty clear what Enzo Maresca’s first team is right now.

He established his favoured side pretty early on, and while it has evolved over time, there’s not much reason to think it’s that different to the one we saw closing out the season. Of the new signings added so far this summer, only Liam Delap really looks to have a chance of cracking the first team by the time we start out Premier League season.

The other ten positions we expect to stay as they were to close out the 2024/2025 campaign.

Maresca’s one spot that remains up for grabs as manager uses CWC to experiment

Benoit Badiashile in action for Chelsea (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

There is one spot potentially up for grabs, however, and it’s the same one we saw tweaked often last year. It was clear from day one that Maresca liked Levi Colwill as his left centre back, and that’s not changed since last August. The player alongside him, however has been in constant flux.

First it was Wesley Fofana. Then when he got injured, Tosin Adarabioyo stepped up. After January, Trevoh Chalobah was recalled and had his own run in the team.

By the end of the campaign, Tosin and Chalobah were splitting that role about 50/50.

Last night’s lineup gave an interesting new angle on things, however. Benoit Badiashile has been a Conference League, B Team player under Maresca so far. But last night he kept his place from the ES Tunis game, keeping both Tosin and Chalobah on the bench.

It was clear that this was an audition for the Frenchman, who hasn’t been regularly trusted with first team football under Maresca yet. His time at Chelsea has been a real mixture – he showed a lot of promise at first, but has struggled for form and fitness since.

There’s been talk about him being sold, but if he keeps impressing, he could yet salvage things at Stamford Bridge.