Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has insisted that the Blues are “not ready” to be considered Premier League title challengers despite extending their strong form with a 3-0 victory over Aston Villa on Sunday.
The Blues were comfortably superior at home to Unai Emery’s out-of-form visitors. Nicolas Jackson fired Chelsea in front after seven minutes before Enzo Fernandez’s crisp half-volley made it 2-0 before the interval. The always-impressive Cole Palmer added a third in the closing stages, but the home side could have easily scored a fourth or fifth.
Centre-back Levi Colwill struck a confident tone this week, yet Maresca has always been more cautious when assessing his side’s aspirations for the season.
When questioned about a potential title challenge after Sunday’s 3-0 win, Maresca snapped: “I said many times I don’t agree with that. I think we are not ready to compete with Liverpool, Arsenal and [Manchester] City for many reasons and because we win today I’m not going to change my idea. We are not ready for that. But the good thing is that we are improving and hopefully very soon we can be there.”
Maresca was pushed on why his Chelsea side – who boast the exact same number of points, goals scored and conceded as Arsenal – are not in the race. “We need to improve many things,” the Italian explained. “We can attack better, we can defend better. But what we need is you have to live moments to get better.”
Chelsea comfortably have the youngest team in the division, boasting an average age of 23.8. Only one other Premier League side is younger than 26. “These kind of players, some of them in their life, in their experience, they’ve played probably one final for any title,” Maresca pointed out. “Probably last year, Carabao Cup, has been the most important game they’ve played. So you need to live moments to get better, and when we start to get these moments, probably we get better and we can compete.
“Arsenal players, Liverpool players, City players, they all live finals, compete for titles, so we’re going to be there soon. But this is one of the reasons why we are still far and not ready to compete with those clubs.”