Enzo Maresca ‘tension’ with respected staff member as cracks appear at Chelsea

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Even though Enzo Maresca’s debut season with Chelsea last year went superbly, the harsh reality is that a slow start to this campaign has already got people speculating about the head coach.

The Blues have had an average start to the 2025/26 campaign, particularly in the Premier League. Enzo Maresca has watched his side win just two of their opening six top-flight matches.

Position	Team	Played MP	Won W	Drawn D	Lost L	For GF	Against GA	Diff GD	Points Pts
8	ChelseaChelsea	6	2	2	2	11	8	3	8

The encouraging news is that Chelsea’s board retain full faith in Maresca despite the concerning form recently.

Maresca has his concerns over Chelsea’s squad right now and their ability to compete across multiple competitions, but he’s proven he can do great things with the young group. Hopefully, they can spark into life on Tuesday night during the Champions League tie at home to Jose Mourinho’s Benfica.

• READ MORE: Pedro Neto seems to disagree with Enzo Maresca’s recent Chelsea tactics, ‘have to do much better’

Tension between Enzo Maresca and Bernardo Cueva

Journalist Simon Phillips reports via Substack that there is ‘tension’ between Chelsea boss Maresca and the board as he’s frustrated over some of the recruitment.

He adds that there is ‘tension’ between Maresca and Bernardo Cueva, who’s the technical analyst at Chelsea. In addition, Chelsea’s ownership and sporting directors have real respect for Cueva and have no plans to move him on.

Chelsea spent £1m on Cueva to steal him away from rivals Brentford, where he proved himself as a set-piece specialist.

It is worrying to hear about fallouts between Maresca and members of staff because it suggests that cracks are starting to appear. Without a doubt, the results in September can’t be helping.

Enzo Maresca record at Chelsea

As you can see below, Maresca’s record in the manager’s dugout at Chelsea still looks pretty strong, winning well over half of his games in charge.

We’re hopeful that the external noise will quiet down in the coming weeks if the Blues can start to pick up a few positive results again. Meanwhile, we’ll have to wait and see what comes from the internal talk of disagreements between staff.