Behind Chelsea’s Trophy Lies A Season Full Of Warning Signs

After Chelsea’s first game of the season, boss Enzo Maresca had tried to put on a brave face.

His side had lost 0-2 to Manchester City, the reigning champions, and appeared to possess flaws that had dogged the previous campaign.

“The performance was good, and we competed against the best team in the world,” said the Italian as he peered into the cameras at Stamford Bridge.

“We played well and created chances. The most significant difference was inside the box and how they managed the ball at the end; they are a master. We don’t like to lose games, but the performance was good.

“We can for sure improve many things, we’ve been together for just six weeks. At the same moment, we liked to analyse the game and we tried to play football and create chances. It’s not easy, but we did well.”

In addition to handling the media narrative surrounding the game, Maresca was dealing with another story that had caused quite a stir: Raheem Sterling being pushed to the exit door.

As he batted away the questions about soccer, the Italian coach towed the party line on the ex-Manchester City forward’s ostracism.

It was a stance that would ultimately prove vindicated. Sterling moved to Arsenal before the transfer window ended and has barely made any impact on the Gunners.

It’s interesting to reexamine that first moment in the spotlight because while much progress has been made on the previous season’s performance, some of the same problems remain.

Maresca ends the season having delivered Champions League soccer and the UEFA Conference League trophy, a decent haul for his first campaign in charge.

The asterisk to those achievements is that qualification for Europe’s top competition was achieved in a season when the traditional challengers, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur’s form, have fallen off a cliff as dominant force Manchester City imploded.

The Conference League victory was, well, success in Europe’s third-tier competition, where anything other than triumph would have been embarrassing for a team as well-resourced as Chelsea.

A Microcosm Of Chelsea Struggles

The final against Real Betis represented a microcosm of the problems that Maresca has been unable to shift.

An ill-judged tactical decision to push full-backs inside and start with Malo Gusto over captain Reece James backfired and saw the Blues trailing at half-time.

It wasn’t just that Betis were ahead; Chelsea looked disjointed and created almost no chances.

The Stamford Bridge faithful have seen self-inflicted damage far too often this season, from the misplaced passing of inadequate sweeper-keeper Robert Sanchez to Nicolas Jackson’s wayward finishing or Enzo Fernandez’s poor decisions in crucial positions.

Those skeptical of Maresca’s methods place the blame for those costly errors squarely at the Italian’s door for the system that has caused them.

Against Betis, Maresca, to his credit, realized he needed to change things and swapped out Gusto for James.

It worked, and with Cole Palmer given a platform to shine, Chelsea stormed back to a 4-1 win.

Afterward, he admitted that the opening period was not good enough. However, he blamed an energy-sapping encounter with Nottingham Forest for sealing Champions League qualification rather than his tactical failure.

“In the first half, we approached the game in the wrong way,” he said. “I expected it a little bit, because for two days, the happiness was a little bit too much after Nottingham Forest.

“You go all season waiting, waiting. We struggled a little bit with that, but the second half was much better.

“The message after Forest was that if we wanted to be an important team, what we’ve done is done, and we have to win a final now.

“That was the message, but there’s the happiness, the tiredness. We played on Sunday for a big target, [Betis] played on Friday for nothing. They had 48 hours extra.

“I expected it a little bit, but in the second half we were much better and we were attacking in behind, which we didn’t do before half-time.”

However, nobody expects Maresca to be judged on winning the Conference League or returning the club to the Champions League.

Given the owners’ outlay, he needs to return them to the highest European soccer table.

There were flashes in the season gone that this might be possible. In the autumn, the team strung together a series of wins that made an unlikely title bid look possible.

That faded, and Maresca’s task will be maintaining the charge next season.

But standing among the confetti in Wroclaw, the Italian was pleased to have delivered the first piece of silverware to Stamford Bridge in three years.

“I’m very proud, and very happy,” he said. “I know the fans deserve it; they’ve waited for a few years for good moments. The club has invested a lot of money, so they’ve been waiting too.

“Hopefully, this can be a starting point and we can begin to create something important.

“The target for next season? We’re going to try again. We’ll enjoy it for a week or so and then start looking ahead.”

What comes next will show whether Maresca has what it takes to be the man to take Chelsea back to the top.