What are the stats behind Chelsea's resurgence under Enzo Maresca?

The Blues were fourth before the start of this week’s games in the Premier League table.

Enzo Maresca has been Chelsea’s manager for just seven Premier League games, but the Blues supporters have a lot to cheer about.

The only team with more goals than Chelsea (16) before the start of this weekend’s games were Manchester City (17).

The Blues have been a lot more entertaining in the 2024–25 season. They have recorded 41 shots on goal, which is the fifth-highest in the division, and have produced 27 “big” chances, which is tied for second place.

#PL action is back. 💙#CFC | #LIVCHE pic.twitter.com/3B0DVBEYkf

— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) October 20, 2024

Italian coach Maresca led Leicester to the EFL Championship title before taking over the Blues from Pochettino. This happened after the Argentine resigned by “mutual consent” at the end of the previous season (2023-24).

Maresca led Chelsea to good wins, notably 6-2 at Wolves, 3-0 at West Ham, and 4-2 against Brighton, after they began the season with a 2-0 home loss to defending champions Manchester City.

Nicolas Jackson and Noni Madueke each have four goals, while Cole Palmer leads the club’s goal-scoring list with six.

How have Chelsea improved a lot in attack?

Pat Nevin, a former Chelsea winger, believes that under Maresca, the team’s offensive players have become more proficient and are less dependent on Palmer, who finished the previous season with 22 league goals.

Nevin highlighted Jackson and Madueke’s threat in the attack in an interview with The Football News Show.

“Nicolas Jackson, the amount of chances he missed [last season] in great positions he got into with his staggering pace, and then blew it, but he’s getting better at that. He is running into more intelligent areas,” said Nevin.

“Noni Madueke has also come on to the game as well. He has that youth but as a winger, you have to go past people and it’s amazing how many people do that for a while but then lose that and make simple passes instead.

“But at Chelsea you have Madueke and Jadon Sancho and both want to get past people.

“Chelsea aren’t totally, utterly leaning on Cole Palmer now. Cole’s been brilliant again, player of the month last month, player of the season last year, but it’s now not just him.”

Chelsea picked up where they left off last season after Pochettino

Even if Maresca has had a successful start to his Chelsea tenure, Pochettino undoubtedly left the team in a great position with obvious signs of progress.

Last season, they had succumbed to Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-finals, advanced to the Carabao Cup final, and won their last five games to finish sixth and earn a spot back in Europe, although in the third-tier, UEFA Conference League.

Even though the club had finished only 12th in 2022–2023 before the sixth-place finish, Pochettino was still fired with all that progress in a season. There was a mixed feeling about keeping the former Tottenham Hotspur manager. The club wanted a possession-based football, which under Pochettino was never going to happen as he likes to play direct football.

Bringing in Maresca could have been proved to be a gamble or an excellent decision. So far it has looked like the club have got their man right. Chelsea are playing fluent football. They now will face Liverpool which will be a big test for the Blues.

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