Chelsea have finalised the appointment of Enzo Maresca as their new head coach after reaching a compensation agreement with Leicester City.
The announcement of Maresca’s arrival at Chelsea comes eight days after Mauricio Pochettino left the London club.
Here, Telegraph Sport assesses the most important areas for Maresca to address as the Italian looks to make his mark in the Premier League
Chelsea spent £107 million on Enzo Fernandez and the Argentina international has a contract which runs until 2032, so he is not going anywhere any time soon. Maresca will need to find a role for the 23-year-old and create a system in which he can thrive.
On the evidence of Fernandez’s time at Chelsea so far, this might not be easy. The midfielder has done little to justify the enormous transfer fee and, under Pochettino, Chelsea were actually significantly better without him.
Across the full 2023/24 season, Chelsea won just 39 per cent of the 36 matches Fernandez started. By contrast, they won 80 per cent of the 15 matches he did not start.
It did not help Fernandez that he was managing an injury problem for some time but, equally, it did not go unnoticed by many supporters that Chelsea’s fine end-of-season form came after he was ruled out for the campaign. His last match was a 5-0 thrashing by Arsenal in April, which was Chelsea’s last defeat of the season.
Without Fernandez, Chelsea went on a five-match winning streak to end the campaign, with Moises Caicedo (their other £100 million midfielder) excelling in the centre of the p
Pochettino’s long history with Tottenham Hotspur made it harder for him to quickly earn the trust of the Chelsea fanbase. There was an enthusiasm towards him at first, but it did not take long for many of the supporters to express their concerns. Pochettino admitted in March that he did not feel the love from the fans.
There has not been much love shown towards the club’s owners, either. In March, the Chelsea Supporters’ Trust sent a 1,500-word letter to co-controlling owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali in which they discussed a lack of trust in the board and warned of the threat of “irreversible toxicity” towards them.
