Chelsea have shown tremendous progress under the leadership of Enzo Maresca as he guided the Blues to the Club World Cup triumph in the United States.
It was a quite a competitive tournament which proved that the Blues are ready to take the fight to their title rivals Manchester City and Liverpool.
Chelsea finished fourth in the 2024/25 Premier League points table, 15 points behind champions Liverpool and two points behind City, who finished third.
Last season, Maresca clearly stated that they are not among the contenders for the Premier League title and their form dipped after the turn of the year and they only secured Champions League football on the last matchday.
But Chelsea won the Conference League and Club World Cup under Maresca’s tutelage which has given the Italian enough confidence to push for the league title in the upcoming campaign.
In the meantime, the Blues have also signed several players including the likes of Jamie Gittens, Liam Delap, Jorrel Hato, Estevao, among many others which have significantly boosted their roster heading into the new season.
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Maresca appeared in a podcast ‘Men in Blazers’ recently where the Italian shared, he believes Chelsea are quite close to challenging Arsenal, City and Liverpool in the fight for the Premier League crown.
“I think one year ago, we were very far from the ones that dominated English football. And I think that now we are quite close, and hopefully we can continue to improve, and be even closer and try to compete for the title,” Maresca told Men in Blazers on their YouTube channel.
“When you are at Chelsea, the target has to be always to win games and titles. This is the minimum required. So we’re going to try.”
Can Chelsea challenge for the Premier League title?
Chelsea’s resurgence has not only been limited to transfers as Maresca has also played a massive role in setting up his tactics and extracting the best out of his players.
The Blues have a lot of squad depth, so much so that they are often forced to move some of them out to their sister club Strasbourg in Ligue 1.
However, they genuinely have players who can turn games on their own and that have transformed the Blues into a team very tough to beat.
Chelsea showed their potential in the Club World Cup final when they absolutely hammered the reigning Champions League winners PSG 3-0 just by playing to their true potential.
So, there’s no reason to believe that Chelsea cannot do the same against Arsenal, City or Liverpool and that puts them right into contention for the league crown.
Chelsea will begin their Premier League 2025/26 campaign against recently Community Shield winners Crystal Palace on Sunday, August 17.
