Enzo Maresca certainly ticked a lot of boxes last year during his first season as Chelsea’s head coach. Now is the time for the Blues to use this momentum and start a new campaign in the right way.
The 2024/25 season will go down in history for Chelsea, winning both the Club World Cup and Conference League. On top of that, the team finished fourth in the Premier League to qualify for the Champions League after a two-year absence from the competition.
Enzo Maresca, 45, proved it was the right decision to snatch him from Leicester City a year ago and give him the reins at Stamford Bridge.
According to talkSPORT’s Jeff Stelling, Maresca will be under pressure at Chelsea to make a positive start to the new Premier League season, which kicks off in mid-August. He points out that the expectation will only grow because of the team’s success last year.
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Enzo Maresca must find consistency in Chelsea XI
If there’s one thing we would love to see from Maresca when the Premier League kicks off, it’s to find a consistent Chelsea line-up.
Last season, it took until the seventh league game of the Premier League for an unchanged XI to be selected. The same Blues line-up started against Brighton (28 September), followed by Nottingham Forest (6 October).
Of course, it’s a strength to be able to rotate and use a deep squad, especially across all the various competitions. However, all the successful teams throughout Premier League history have been centred around a familiar starting XI, so finding that as early as possible feels imperative.
In fairness, Maresca started to stick with a similar team in the final stretch of last season, which served them very well. Back in May, Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe highlighted Chelsea’s consistency in team selection as a great strength towards the latter stages of the season.
Chelsea’s strongest XI to face Crystal Palace
On 17 August, Chelsea begin their league campaign by hosting London rivals Crystal Palace.
Chelsea’s players begin their pre-season work on 4 August, which includes two upcoming friendly matches against Bayer Leverkusen and AC Milan. It’s quite a short turnaround before the league opener, though.
We’ve attempted to put together the strongest XI available to Maresca right now.
If the Blues starting team to face Palace is anything like above, we would feel pretty confident of getting off to a winning start.
The reality is that the squad is looking as strong as it has done for the past few seasons, so Maresca is spoilt for choice. But the key thing is to establish his strongest team as soon as possible.
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