Seven Premier League games into Enzo Maresca’s reign as Chelsea boss and the Blues fans have plenty to be excited about.
Before this weekend’s matches started, only Manchester City with 17 goals had scored more than Chelsea’s total of 16.
At the same stage last season, Chelsea, at the beginning of Mauricio Pochettino’s only campaign in charge, had seven goals, including a three-game run without registering.
In 2024-25, the Blues have been far more entertaining. They have created 27 “big” chances, the joint-second highest in the division, and had 41 shots on target, the fifth highest.
Italian Maresca guided Leicester to the Championship title before replacing Pochettino after the Argentine left by “mutual consent” at the end of last season.
Since coming in, Maresca started with a 2-0 home loss against reigning champions Manchester City, but has since guided them to victories including 6-2 at Wolves, 3-0 at West Ham and 4-2 against Brighton.
Cole Palmer is flying in the goalscoring charts with six goals, while Nicolas Jackson and Noni Madueke have four apiece.
‘Chelsea aren’t totally leaning on Cole Palmer now’
Former Chelsea winger Pat Nevin feels the club’s attacking players have improved under Maresca, with less reliance on Palmer, a player that scored 22 league goals last season.
Speaking on The Football News Show, Nevin picked out the greater productivity from Jackson and Madueke.
“Nicolas Jackson, the amount of chances he missed [last season] in great positions he got into with his staggering pace, and then blew it, but he’s getting better at that. He is running into more intelligent areas,” said Nevin.
“Noni Madueke has also come on to the game as well. He has that youth but as a winger, you have to go past people and it’s amazing how many people do that for a while but then lose that and make simple passes instead.
“But at Chelsea you have Madueke and Jadon Sancho and both want to get past people.
“Chelsea aren’t totally, utterly leaning on Cole Palmer now. Cole’s been brilliant again, player of the month last month, player of the season last year, but it’s now not just him.”
Chelsea continuing where Pochettino left off
While Maresca has enjoyed a good start to his spell at Chelsea, there is no doubt Pochettino left the club in a strong position with clear signs of improvement.
They reached the Carabao Cup final, lost to Manchester City in the semi-finals of the FA Cup and won their last five matches to finish sixth and gain a return to Europe, albeit in the third-tier Europa Conference League.
That sixth-placed finish came after only finishing 12th in 2022-23, but it was still not enough to keep Pochettino in a job.
Former Aston Villa and West Ham midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger believes there have been further signs of progress from Chelsea this season, but still thinks they are some way from winning the title.
“They’re fun to watch – and still there are so many options in the squad, a lot of talent,” he told the Planet Premier League podcast.
“I think that was the long-term goal of the Chelsea owners; to bring in a lot of talent and eventually [challenge]. They need time to get going but then with this talent and a good manager is needed to get it all together.
“This season we have seen glimpses of it, a lot of people are surprised to see them doing this well already but I think it’s going to take even longer to become real title contenders.”
Chelsea face a test of credentials at Anfield
Chelsea have won all three of their away league matches this season, but we will find out how strong they really are when they face Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday (16:30 BST).
After Liverpool, Maresca’s side will have Premier League games against Newcastle, Manchester United and Arsenal. Liverpool have a challenging run of their own, with a trip to Arsenal next in the league followed by matches against Aston Villa and Brighton after which they visit Southampton before hosting champions Manchester City.
“For Liverpool we will find out [on Sunday] about their title credentials, because these are the teams you want to play against and find out if you’re good enough,” added Nevin.
“Liverpool will be there or thereabouts, definitely in the top three. But for Chelsea it’s slightly different, it’s not checking title credentials, it’s top four credentials.
“They’ve matured, they’ve got better, they are improving all the time but it’s going to take a little bit longer, they are not Manchester City or Arsenal.
“If they get through these next four fixtures in the Premier League and are still in the top four, I think they will stay there for the rest of the season.”
