Chelsea review of 2024-25: Mission accomplished for Enzo Maresca – but can he build on it?
There was no grand unveiling at Stamford Bridge to mark the start of Enzo Maresca's tenure as Chelsea head coach, but his debut season ended with the club shining once more on the European stage.
Maresca's first press conference was scheduled to take place in a room packed full of reporters the week before the squad left for their pre-season tour of the USA. It was postponed due to a racism furore surrounding Enzo Fernandez, and so Maresca's media debut came not in west London, but instead with much less fanfare and far fewer journalists on the west coast of America.
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Just one sign of the many twists and turns Chelsea have been through is that Fernandez was one of the heroes in Chelsea's last fixture, scoring a crucial equaliser in the 4-1 victory over Real Betis in the UEFA Conference League Final.
As always there is a lot to reflect on as The Athletic looks back on Chelsea's 2024-25…
Third time lucky. Three years after taking over, the Todd Boehly-Clearlake consortium have got something truly tangible to show for their efforts. Chelsea have qualified for the Champions League for the first time under their ownership and also claimed a first trophy by winning the UEFA Conference League. This should give Chelsea the confidence to kick on from here.
To be fair, Tottenham away is usually regarded by Chelsea fans as their game of the season anyway, simply because they love nothing more than beating their fierce rivals on an annual basis.
December's 4-3 win at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was extra special, though, because Maresca's side showed some fight in adversity, recovering from 2-0 down to claim all three points. Palmer scoring a Panenka penalty was the epitome of cool and helped Chelsea's following rub more salt in their counterparts' wounds.
Palmer started the season looking like he would dominate the nominations. He provided some worthy contenders, but I have gone for Pedro Neto's late winner versus Fulham.
First, because it was a beautiful goal; a lovely team move to begin with, involving Moises Caicedo, Fernandez and Palmer before Neto produced a finish of great power and technique. Spinning on to Fernandez's pass with his back to goal, the Portugal international fired a tremendous shot past Bernd Leno.
Another factor elevating it above others was its importance. It ended Chelsea's four-month run without an away league win and injected some much-needed belief back into the dressing room for the run-in.
Palmer's four goals in 20 minutes against Brighton in September. It was the first time in Premier League history a player had scored four times in the first half of a match, although the England international was 'angry' afterwards because he felt he should have had 'five or six'. Standards eh?
Maresca saying that Chelsea being beaten by Brighton in the FA Cup Fourth Round may be a positive because it meant they could concentrate on the Premier League and UEFA Conference League. In PR terms, as well as his relationship with the fans, it was a huge own goal even though Chelsea went on to secure their targets of Champions League qualification and Conference League success.
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'Today that was for sure not progress; if anything, it was a step back. Maybe we disrespected the competition today, but this is football; if you don't prepare right, you will pay.'
This is just some of what Reece James had to say after Chelsea's embarrassing 2-1 home defeat to Legia Warsaw in April.
What James uttered to TNT Sport following the final whistle of the UEFA Conference League quarter-final second leg stood out for a few reasons, but particularly because this kind of rhetoric is not something you come to expect from the defender in front of a camera.
It was the kind of damning appraisal former captain John Terry would provide after a poor display and it was good to see James, who has kept the armband under Maresca, follow suit.
The tough words needed to be said, to give everyone the reality check they needed to spark an improvement. It is perhaps no coincidence that Chelsea went on to finish the campaign so strongly.
Chelsea announcing a front of shirt sponsor with seven games remaining. Better late than never I suppose…
Ahead of Chelsea's game at Wolves in August, Noni Madueke took to Instagram to declare of Wolverhampton: 'Everything about this place is 's**t'.
Inevitably the locals were none too impressed and booed him ferociously. But to further secure Madueke's place as public enemy No 1 in the city, he scored his first and only hat-trick at senior level in a 6-2 victory. After expressing regret over the social media post, Madueke rather unconvincingly added, 'I'm sure Wolverhampton is a nice town'. Easier to say when walking off with the match ball.
Kaoru Mitoma led Chelsea's defence a merry dance in Brighton's 3-0 Premier League victory in February. He also scored one of the finest goals in 2024-25, controlling a long kick from Bart Verbruggen superbly before beating Filip Jorgensen. Sky Sports commentator Jamie Carragher can be guilty of hyperbole but few argued with his assessment that Mitoma's first touch was 'Messi-like'.
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I am going with an eight. Yes, Chelsea were favourites for the Conference League all along and have a squad that should be competing for a top-five spot. But Maresca still deserves credit for getting this young Chelsea squad over the line under intense pressure. Winning eight of the last nine matches to achieve the feat was particularly impressive.
How many of the players that Chelsea don't want are actually sold. The 'bomb squad' was a negative distraction at the start of this season but the number involved in it could be even greater this time around. We are talking well into double figures.
Chelsea are confident there will be a lot of outgoings. However, they failed to offload Raheem Sterling or Ben Chilwell on a permanent basis this season (both left on loan) and now they have other highly-paid players in Joao Felix and Christopher Nkunku added to the mix.
Estevao Willian, who completes his move from Palmeiras for an initial €34million ($38.6m; £29m) this summer, is a bargain.
Top photo: James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images
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