Chelsea’s Resurgence
11/10/2024 17:27:23Author: Jack Guing,
Chelsea have started the 2024/2025 Premier League season in excellent form under new manager Enzo Maresca. There was many question marks raised about the appointment of Maresca, mainly down to the fact he only managed one season, after leaving Man City as Pep Guardiola’s assistant. This season was a successful one, gaining promotion from the Championship to the Premier League with Leicester City. There is a step up from Leicester to Chelsea, but so far Maresca has done well with this step up. Chelsea have been scoring for fun and managing to gain valuable points along the way.
Maresca inherited a massive squad and has also added to it with the signings of Pedro Neto, Joao Felix, Kieran Dewsbury-Hall, Filip Jorgensen, Mike Penders, Aaron Anselmino, Renato Veiga, Caleb Wiley, Marc Guiu, Tosin Adarabioyo and Jadon Sancho on loan. It has been another busy summer at Chelsea but Maresca has managed the squad well, with departures of Kepa, Raheem Sterling, Armando Broja all on loan. Maresca has limited the number of players he has used, which has provided some stability for Chelsea, which has not been seen in the last number of seasons. Let’s dive into Chelsea’s early results, as well as what is going right for them so far this season.
Chelsea’s Start
Chelsea currently sit 4th in the Premier League, ahead of Aston Villa in 5th on goal difference. They are only 1 point behind Arsenal and Man City in 3rd and 2nd and are 2 points behind league leaders Liverpool. They have the joint second best goal difference in the league with a goal difference of +8, the same as Man City. Only Liverpool have a better goal difference with +10. Chelsea have scored 15 goals this season, an average of 2.5 goals per match. They had a difficult opening day fixture versus Man City losing at home 0-2 and it looked like it could be another difficult season for them. Since then they are unbeaten in the league with 4 wins and 1 draw. They defeated Wolves 2-6, Bournemouth 0-1, West Ham 0-3 and Brighton 4-2. They drew 1-1 at home to fellow London side Crystal Palace.
"Chelsea’s resurgence under Enzo Maresca has been electrifying. With an abundance of attacking talent and a fearless approach, they’ve become one of the most exciting teams in the Premier League. If they keep this momentum, a top-four finish is well within reach."
What is going right?
Chelsea have an abundance of attacking talent in their ranks. They have scored 15 goals this season in the league and only failed to score in 1 game. They have multiple options in each attacking position and this has shown to be fruitful so far this season with Coke Palmer scoring 4 versus Brighton, Noni Madueke scoring 3 versus Wolves. Striker Nicholas Jackson has scored 4 goals this season. Other attacking options Joao Felix and Christopher Nkunku also have goals to their names. New signings Jadon Sancho and Pedro Neto have also looked dangerous when they have featured. These attacking options are perfect for Maresca’s style. As we seen at Leicester he enjoys his teams to take risks playing out from the back but are very much attacking sides whose only goal is to outscore the opposition. Last season Leicester scored a total of 89 league goals across 46 matches, an average of 1.93 goals per game. Maresca has managed to implement his style quickly but barring the Man City game they have yet to come up against strong opposition. Tests will come after the international break with their 4 league games after the break being against Liverpool, Newcastle, Man United and Arsenal.
Chelsea will be happy with their start to the season. There has definitely been a resurgence at the beginning of this season and they definitely look like a team who can challenge for a Champions League place and finish in the top 4 of the Premier League. They have so much attacking talent and are a fun team to watch for neutrals as a result. Maresca has had a good start to life at Chelsea and will need to keep this momentum, especially with Chelsea’s history of sacking managers.
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✒️ Jack Guing – Football and GAA Sports Expert
Jack Guing has a strong knowledge of the sport of GAA through the lens of performance analysis with multiple GAA teams. He holds a master's degree in sports performance. He has a huge love of all things sports, especially golf, soccer and GAA. He uses statistics and performance analysis in order to predict the outcome of matches and events.