“Fascinating” Enzo Maresca has Chelsea in title race and “hard to argue against” Blues being a better project than Arsenal | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca certainly seems to be succeeding at Chelsea where Messrs. Potter, Lampard and Pochettino failed, with the Blues absolutely in the Premier League title race this season.

There’s a togetherness about the team in 24/25 which hasn’t been notable before, and the manager has to be given credit for that.

Enzo Maresca praised by Stan Collymore for productive play

Ditto his man-management skills.

Though he can be brutal when making a decision, the Italian clearly won’t sugar coat anything. If he doesn’t like you, seemingly he’ll just come straight out with it and tell you.

There are no grey areas and for an elite athlete that’s arguably something they can work with.

Chelsea’s smart transfer business is also “proving people wrong,” though they did miss out on a “special” Arsenal ace.

Former professional turned pundit, Stan Collymore, believes that the Blues are almost certainly onto a winner with Maresca.

Enzo Maresca interacts with Nicolas Jackson. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

“Enzo Maresca is a fascinating one really,” he said to CaughtOffside for his exclusive column.

“He keeps saying Chelsea are not in a title race when they obviously are, and they’re playing lovely front foot, attacking, attractive football with Cole Palmer at the heart of it.

“It’s worth recalling a column I did back in January 2023 when I basically agreed with Mykailo Mudryk that Chelsea were a better project than Arsenal. It’s hard to argue against it at this point, when you consider what Maresca has achieved in such a short space of time compared to Mikel Arteta’s tenure.

“[…] Maresca has basically got a cohesive unit, and I think that where he’s succeeded – and where Poch, Lampard and Potter failed – is that we’re no longer talking about the more than a billion pounds that’s been spent recently by the club.

“Now when you see Chelsea, you think ‘excellent, young side.’”

The turnaround in fortunes in West London is something to admire, particularly when you consider that the Chelsea job is Maresca’s first managerial job of a top-flight side.

Arguably, it shows how much he’s learned from former mentor, Pep Guardiola.

Maresca was one of Pep’s staff at Man City before branching out on his own, much like Arsenal’s Mikel Arteta.