Chelsea not yet ready to compete for Premier League title, admits Maresca

Enzo Maresca has insisted Chelsea are not ready to compete for the Premier League title but believes that his side’s strong start to the season is building “energy, trust and confidence” among his players.

Thursday’s 4-2 win over Gent in their opening match of the Conference League was Chelsea’s fifth in succession in all competitions, with Maresca’s side having scored 17 goals during that run. They head into Sunday’s meeting with Nottingham Forest at Stamford Bridge having started the weekend in fourth. They are two points behind the leaders, Liverpool, and one behind the champions, Manchester City – who inflicted Chelsea’s only defeat of the season so far on the opening weekend – and last season’s runners-up, Arsenal. But Maresca, who like Mikel Arteta previously worked as an assistant to Pep Guardiola at City, was adamant that his team will need time to build following his arrival from Leicester in the summer.

“I really don’t think we can compete with City or Arsenal. I really don’t think that because we are not ready,” he said. “The reason is that City has worked with the same manager for nine years and Arsenal five years. If you want to compete for big things you need that time.

“After Arsenal beat PSG [in the Champions League on Tuesday] they asked Luis Enrique and he said the same thing, that ‘Arsenal have had the same manager for five years and us [PSG] a year and a half’. Imagine us, three months … so it’s a huge difference. So I am really convinced we cannot compete with those clubs. The target is to improve and slowly, slowly to get closer to those clubs but at the moment we are not ready for that.”

Asked how long it may take to reach City and Arsenal’s level, Maresca added: “There is no time frame because you can continue to improve and add solutions to things always. But in the end the more time you are together, the better things are because you can know each other. They can improve. It is about this.”

Maresca dismissed suggestions that his calm approach was different to three of Chelsea’s previous Italian managers, Carlo Ancelotti, Maurizio Sarri and Antonio Conte, but said their good start to the campaign has bred confidence in his squad.

“I like the way I am. We are all different,” he said. “I played for three years as a teammate with Antonio at Juventus and I know how calm he is,” he said. “When you win games it is always about energy, trust and confidence. It is helping the process. But also the players are the first to recognise when the team plays well or not. Results are helping but the players are especially convinced as they can see our identity.”