Chelsea are looking good but Enzo Maresca has told everyone concerned with the club to not get their hopes up.
The Blues will be facing Barrow AFC in the domestic cup before their next Premier League encounter. They are currently enjoying a rich vein of form which has seen them defeat West Ham United and AFC Bournemouth in back-to-back away Premier League games.
Maresca himself has quickly shaken off the criticisms from his pre-season outings with three consecutive away wins, which is the first time a new manager has achieved that in Premier League history since Pep Guardiola, who he once assisted at Manchester City.
“We were ahead of where we expected to be today,” the Italian said ahead of their match with Barrow AFC. “Not in terms of results but in terms of the way the team is progressing and is playing.”
“In terms of results, I still think we are still far from teams like Manchester City and Arsenal because we need to learn many things. We need to improve many things, attacking better, defending better.”
“But the important thing is the feeling we have at the moment that we are going in that direction. That is very important.”
Previewing the game against Barrow, Maresca said: “It’s dangerous because football is full of these kind of games that you think are easy games and then it’s a tricky game.”
“In this moment it’s the worst game for us. It’s much better [to have] a different kind of game. This is why we have to take it seriously. We cannot allow ourselves to drop a little bit.”
Maresca also hinted that Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall could get his first Chelsea start in the game against Barrow. “Probably [he will start],” the Italian manager said. “We have a session today. I like to tell the players [before you]. I’m very happy with him.”
Chelsea fans could start questioning the former Leicester City man’s transfer, especially with Conor Gallagher’s success at Atlético de Madrid.
Dewsbury-Hall came in as Maresca’s preferred like-for-like replacement for Gallagher and though Dewsbury-Hall has only just arrived at Chelsea and missed one game because of illness, Gallagher’s good start at Atletico has put the spotlight on the former Leicester man a bit.
Ben Chilwell could also make an appearance, according to Maresca. “I think so. Hopefully we can give him some minutes tomorrow,” the manager said. “The idea for him was to leave. In the moment that he’s here, he’s one of the squad, he’s training.”
“He will be in the squad tomorrow and hopefully we can give him some minutes.”
