Maresca makes big denial about Chelsea lacking speed and energy against lower teams | OneFootball

Chelsea had great success last week in two games against some of the best teams in Europe. They beat Barcelona 3-0, then drew 1-1 with league leading Arsenal, despite going down to ten men.

The next few games pose a very different challenge. While those two came and were willing to attack us at Stamford Bridge, some of the games to come will see teams sit very deep and challenge us to break them down.

Maresca denies Chelsea lack speed and energy against lesser teams

Malo Gusto scores for Chelsea. (Photo by Steve Bardens/Getty Images)

Enzo Maresca was asked about this in his press conference today – it was noted that his team runs less distance against sides towards the bottom of the league. But he insisted this was correlation, not causation:

“No, probably it’s also the way the other team try to defend against us,” Maresca mused.

“Again, when they try to do high pressing, so that means that you have more space, you can run more because there is more space to attack. When they just sit back, there is not enough space to cover in terms of running behind. So personally I think it depends on how the other team behaves. So I think this is the reason.”

https://chelsea.news/2025/12/anselmino-injury-dortmund-buy-sell-on/

In other news…

Aaron Anselmino had a couple of false starts in his Dortmund loan after injuries, but he’s now back playing regularly and they are already talking about buying him permanently.

A big question for Enzo Maresca in his presser this week was whether he would continue using Reece James in midfield, and he explained his logic for that quite well.