Maresca insists Chelsea ‘making progress’ despite wretched Premier League form

The Football Faithful

·25 January 2025

Maresca insists Chelsea ‘making progress’ despite wretched Premier League form

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca says that his team are still “making progress” after losing to Manchester City, continuing their poor run of form in the Premier League.

The Blues were the better side in the first half of their encounter at the Etihad Stadium after Noni Madueke capitalised on an error from debutant Abdukodir Khusanov to put the visitors in front.

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In what has become a worrying trend over the past month, the west London outfit could not hold onto their lead as Josko Gvardiol, Erling Haaland and Phil Foden all scored to hand Man City a hugely important victory in their campaign.

Chelsea were viewed as possible title contenders as recently as December, but a run of one win in seven Premier League games has seen them slip down to sixth in the table.

Maresca insists Chelsea ‘making progress’ despite poor form

“The game started very well for us,” Maresca told Sky Sports. “We scored the first one and could have scored the second goal two or three times. The game would have completely changed. We missed.”

Goalkeeper Robert Sanchez was at fault for Man City’s second goal, getting himself caught in no man’s land after racing out of his area in a failed attempt to beat Haaland to a long ball from Ederson.

The Norwegian striker deftly lobbed the Spain international for his 18th league goal of the season, a moment Maresca admits was a game changer.

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“The team was there but in the last minutes we conceded for 1-1,” the Italian said. “The second goal changed the game.

“Robert is the first one [to admit] he knows he has to do better. Working hard every day [is the way to improve]. We try to have conversations with all of them.

“We are making progress. We are better than one or two months ago. These moments will make us better.”

No player has made more errors leading to a goal in the Premier League this season than Sanchez, with his five also the most on record (since 2007-08) by a Chelsea player in a single campaign.

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