Enzo Maresca enters defining period of his Chelsea tenure with Champions League qualification in sight

Evening Standard

·11 May 2025

Enzo Maresca enters defining period of his Chelsea tenure with Champions League qualification in sight

Maresca is determined to deliver Champions League football for the Blues next season

The Chelsea manager had no sooner hailed his team’s success in reaching the Conference League final than cast his mind forward to the first of his team’s “three Premier League finals”.

Enzo Maresca would dearly love his much-fancied side to get over the line in Wroclaw against Real Betis later this month but knows as well as anyone that this season will be judged according to whether or not it is rubberstamped with Champions League qualification.

Their three-game run-in, before the Conference League final, begins on Sunday with a midday kick-off at St James’ Park against a Newcastle side above them in fourth not because of having more points or a greater goal difference but courtesy of having scored more goals in their 35 games to date.

The Newcastle match “is a big one”, Maresca said on Thursday night, the aggregate win over Djurgarden just an hour old but long gone in his mind.

“It’s a huge one. And Manchester United [next week] will be a big one, and [final game] Nottingham Forest will be a big one. We now have three more games and all of them will be big games, for sure.

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“Sunday is a chance to start in the right way. We are on a good run, in a good mood. Hopefully we can win the game. It’s not an ideal situation. It’s 12pm after [facing Djurgarden on] Thursday night. But we need to adapt immediately.”

Chelsea must grasp the opportunity, having beaten Fulham, Everton and stunned champions Liverpool to take nine points from a possible nine since a 2-2 draw with relegated Ipswich just shy of a month ago — a result whose potential knock-on effect threatened to derail their Champions League bid at the time.

We now have three more games and all of them will be big games, for sure

Enzo Maresca

But Arsenal, Aston Villa and Sunday’s opponents Newcastle have all lost in the league during Chelsea’s short spotless run, and there is now a real chance for the Blues to return to Europe’s premier competition next season if they can get their “three finals” right.

Highly encouraging is that Cole Palmer finally ended that goal drought against Liverpool, a curse casting back to January 14 which had visibly curbed his confidence. The risk-taking and mick-taking was back last weekend though. It was Palmer time once more. It needs to remain so.

Back to his best? Cole Palmer

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Others have stepped up and must keep it up, not least Nicolas Jackson. The striker’s goal drought of his own overlapped with Palmer’s, unfortunately enough. But he has three goals in his last three games now and scored a stunner in the first leg against Djurgarden, an instinctive finish smacked into the top corner.

If Moises Caicedo plays at right-back and Romeo Lavia and Enzo Fernandez are partnered together in midfield then they must be wary of Newcastle’s physical midfield trio of Joe Willock, Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimaraes.

It is this area of the pitch where Sunday’s match could well be won or lost, but Maresca has said he believes Chelsea already have good enough midfielders to win league titles in years to come. The latest opportunity to put that to the test duly arrives.