Maresca confirms Chelsea's stance on Premier League title race ahead of Arsenal clash | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca has played down talks of the Premier League title race ahead of Sunday's clash with Arsenal, claiming the club will reassess the situation in the second half of the season.

The weekend's derby will be between the leading team and a team sitting in second place, so the result will have a massive impact on the competition for the title.

Arsenal will keep their spot at the top regardless of the result, but Chelsea will have the opportunity to cut down the gap from six to three, a one-game swing.

Liverpool's and Manchester City's inconsistent forms also present an opportunity that neither Chelsea nor Arsenal would want to miss out on.

Despite all these, Maresca refused to entertain the title race conversation.

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"I think it's too early in any case," the Italian said in Friday's press conference when asked if Chelsea are seriously targeting the Premier League title.

"If we win, if we don't win, I think it's too early. We are still, end of November, we are still five, six months to go.

"I think it's very important when we're going to be in February, March, where we are, and from there we decide, and we see if we can achieve something important."

Looking at the table, Chelsea are actually not much better than last season in terms of results.

After 12 matches last season, Chelsea sat third in the table with 22 points, behind Liverpool and Manchester City.

This time, Chelsea are second with 23 points, so only better by a point.

Maresca, however, insisted that he feels that his team are more ready this term.

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"I think for sure it's different compared to one year ago. It's because we spent one more year together," he explained.

"We went through moments where we can learn from that moment. Then again, for me it's very early.

"We are still at the end of November, December. So it's very early, and it's important to be where we are now in March, April, and then we'll see."

Chelsea managed to climb to second place, too, last season and kept the spot until mid-December.

They started slipping out of the title race after back-to-back defeats against Fulham and Ipswich Town in late December and eventually finished fourth at the end of the season.