Families at training and old school full backs: Maresca's Chelsea revival

Times

14 hours ago

Facing Paris Saint-Germain should have conveyed some fear for Chelsea. Such has been PSG's dominance in 2025 that they have achieved a deified status, their coach, Luis Enrique, ordained as the new high priest of the game, and their players are lining up for the brightest and best individual awards of the year.
Yet there was no sign of fear or reverence on Sunday. Chelsea approached the game with a concentrated intensity that stemmed from total confidence not only in themselves, but in their game plan. Its execution, in spectacular fashion in New Jersey, was a ringing endorsement of head coach Enzo Maresca, vocalised emphatically by Chelsea's star player, Cole Palmer.
'He [Maresca] is building something special, something important,' Palmer said. 'Everyone has talked a lot of shit about us all season but I feel like we are going in the right direction.
'The gaffer put a great game plan out. He knew where the space was going to be. He tried to free me up as much as possible and I just had to repay him and score some goals.'
Maresca has already had a successful season with Chelsea. He won the first trophy of the Clearlake Capital era, the Conference League, in May and guided Chelsea back to the Champions League too. It has not all been easy. His team suffered a disappointing downturn in form mid-season, he threatened a rift with supporters for criticising the home atmosphere and the team's style of play has come under fire for its lack of tempo.
His achievements, while not groundbreaking, earned him respect, though, not least because they were achieved despite having no available striker for two months, a period in which he instilled a touch of resilience as Chelsea racked up seven 1-0 wins in 2025.
Doubling the trophy haul for the season in the United States, and securing nearly all the prize money available to them from the Club World Cup — about £90 million — is another feather in his cap but that does not fully convey the potential significance of Sunday's win. What was more important was the nature of it and what that represented.
Nobody, not a soul, predicted treble-winning PSG would be 3-0 down by half-time for the first time in a fixture against overseas opposition since 1997. This was a display that suggested Chelsea are heading in the right direction under Maresca and reflected that they — and their coach — are capable of competing with Europe's best. 'Winning this trophy against such good opposition sends a big statement,' said Reece James. 'I hope next season we're competing in the Premier League to win the title and competing to go far in the Champions League as well.'
It is evident in games like this that the players are responding to Maresca. Marc Cucurella said last week that the coach was a key reason why he had enjoyed the 'best year of his career' while Levi Colwill has previously called him 'light years' ahead of other coaches.
During this tournament, there were signs of why he has that buy-in. His players had a degree of freedom. They were spotted walking the streets of Philadelphia, climbing the Rocky Steps and out in New York too, where Cole was seen riding around Times Square on a scooter. It broke the intensity of spending so much time in hotels with each other.
The players were also allowed family to join them, and even sometimes around training. 'In this competition, he tries to bring families to make sure everyone is happy and everyone is close to their family,' explained Malo Gusto. 'That helps us a lot.'
That understanding with the squad is rewarded in games like this one, allowing such attention to detail, regarding how his team and the opposition play, to be tolerated. 'It's much more about details than last year, tactics,' Gusto added. 'He's a top coach. It's because of him. He created a good energy between us.'
Maresca had told his players that they needed to start physically and fast, to 'let PSG understand that we are here to win the game'. That, the Italian added, 'set the tone' for what was to follow. To press so aggressively requires freedom from doubt and it was clear after ten minutes that Chelsea were unfazed.
Maresca provided his players with the tools to succeed. He wanted PSG's troublesome midfield trio of João Neves, Fabián Ruiz and Vitinha aggressively marked man for man, and then wanted the team to focus their own play down the PSG left, where Palmer was lurking behind the normally freewheeling Nuno Mendes. 'Analysing them, we saw there was a good opportunity to exploit that space,' Maresca said.
Accusations of his tactical stubbornness have been pushed aside for pragmatic alterations in this tournament. Robert Sánchez, the goalkeeper, played longer passes against PSG after a season of going short and performed superbly. Maresca redeployed a new system too, one that includes traditional full backs instead of inverted ones, which placed Palmer into a position out wide and allowed Gusto to shine. It is a system he has trialled during this tournament, a variation of a 4-2-2-2. It looked a loose fit in defeat against Flamengo but then it worked smoothly against Benfica. By the time they faced PSG, their most difficult opponent, Chelsea had perfected it.
'I didn't expect 3-0, but I did expect a game where the team would fight,' Maresca said. 'I think that the team we have can compete against the best teams in the world.'
This is just one performance, played after a very long season. But providing the context not only of PSG's standing, but also Chelsea's journey through a new project, built on youth after vast expense, offers promise for the season ahead. There is more depth now; Pedro and Liam Delap greatly strengthen the front line while Jamie Gittens and Estêvão Willian are still to arrive. Belief is there in the camp. Can they win the Premier League now?
'Yeah, definitely,' said Colwill. 'I said at the start of this tournament that our plan is to win it and people looked at me as if I was crazy.
'So I'm going to say the exact same thing now going into the Premier league and Champions League. I think we're ready and we'll see next season.'
Chelsea face an immediate challenge with no proper pre-season. They will have three weeks of leave, but their first game of the 2025-26 campaign, against Crystal Palace, is in five weeks' time. A slow start feels inevitable.
But the potential is clear. The Club World Cup has been a shot in the arm for the Chelsea project and, unquestionably, this is the high-water mark of Maresca's tenure so far.