Maresca: Fans can dream about the title but Chelsea are not contenders | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca is holding firm on his stance that Chelsea are still not ready to compete for the title despite continuing to gain ground on Liverpool.

After Sunday’s 2-1 win over Brentford, Chelsea sit in second place, just two points behind league leading LIverpool, who have a game in hand.

Now on a run of seven straight wins, Maresca’s belief that Chelsea are not title contenders seems to be wavering.

He admitted: “You can talk about the title, and the fans, they can dream about the title absolutely. If you ask me, I tell you what I think, and you can think in a different way.

“Just because there are things that I think no matter how many games we win, for me we are not ready, but we are happy that the fans, they can dream something more.”

Pressed for more detail, he argued that Chelsea are still not where he wants them to be, pointing to sloppily conceded goals and a lack of control on the game.

The comments came after Chelsea conceded a late consolation goal to Bryan Mbeumo, whose 90th minute effort made for an uncomfortable period of injury time at Stamford Bridge.

He continued: “One of the reasons why is that I think that teams that know how to compete to win the title are not going to concede the goals that we concede.

“We concede the goal on 90 minutes, throw in for us, we concede a goal. A team that knows how to win the title, that goal they are not going to concede.

“I don’t know if you don’t believe me or think that I told you that many times that I would love the pressure to compete for title, but we are not ready for many reasons.

“One of the reasons why is because we cannot concede the goals we concede, open the game, and give them the chance to take a point here.”

Despite that, he said he is thrilled that fans in the stands are recognising the club’s progress after chants of his name and ‘we’ve got our Chelsea back’ rang around the ground.

“I am very happy and we can see the fans are happy, especially because we work everyday. It is just because of the players. Their spirit tonight was unbelievable to the end. The desire, hungry to get three points, this is the right way.”