Maresca succeeding after embracing Chelsea heritage and abandoning Pep-ball says journalist | OneFootball

The Athletic’s Michael Cox has just done a really good piece about Chelsea’s draw with Arsenal over the weekend, and what it says about the manager’s progress at the club.

He wrote that Sunday was the day where it really felt like Maresca had become a proper Chelsea manager, and how did it happen? In large part because the Blues moved away from what the coach had tried to introduce initially, and had come towards what is in the club’s “DNA” and what the fans want to see. Robert Sanchez is no longer playing ever goal kick short, just as an example.

Chelsea “thrive” in sticky situation and go back to their old ways

Chelsea celebrate against Arsenal.

The red card to Moises Caicedo, put them in a bad position, but they love being in those positions and do well – at least they have in the past.

“For all their successes over the years, Chelsea have always thrived when being in this situation: their opponents with the ball, themselves as the spoilsports. They’ve won titles when criticised for being defensive. They’ve won European Cups as the clear underdogs against more vaunted opposition.”

It’s a really interesting take, and while some would argue that there are fingerprints of the Italian all over this team, there’s no denying this is less like what we were seeing in preseason in the summer of 2024.

It shouldn’t be seen as a knock on Maresca either. He’s been feeling the situation out in his first 18 months, and now seems to be getting to something that works consistently. Let’s not forget that Mikel Arteta’s first year at Arsenal was pretty horrendous (far worse than Maresca’s first season at Chelsea) and it was only when he moved away from the style he had been trying to play that he found success.

He now has Arsenal top of the league and favourites in the Champions League. Who knows where Maresca will have us in a few years time.

In other news…

Malo Gusto also spoke after the game and he was super positive about the way his team had played with ten men, especially considering the standard of their superb opposition.

Joao Pedro noted that Robert Sanchez had had a really good game for the Blues in goal, and had a major hand in the draw (which did feel like a win, in the circumstances).