Chelsea will embark on yet another new era this season, with Enzo Maresca the latest manager tasked with delivering success at the club.
Previous boss Mauricio Pochettino had things heading in the right direction towards the end of last season, but the Blues dispensed with his services.
Maresca was appointed as his replacement after guiding Leicester City to the Championship title last season, but he has zero top-flight managerial experience.
The latest Premier League odds highlight the pressure Maresca is under to deliver immediate success at Chelsea.
The Blues are rated as fourth favourites to win the title, with only Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool ahead of them in the outright betting.
Maresca has made an underwhelming start at Chelsea, with his team drawing a pre-season game against Wrexham before being demolished by Celtic.
The Scottish Premiership champions took advantage of several defensive lapses to claim a 4-1 victory and leave Maresca questioning his team’s performance.
“As we said, the result is always important,” Maresca said. “For us, we need to analyse the game in general.
“I think on the ball, the team were ten times better than in the game against Wrexham and that is important because we can see the number of chances we created first half and second half.
“The result is always important but we need to judge and analyse different things. On the ball we created chances, off the ball we probably conceded too much and that is something we need to improve.”
While Chelsea fans will understandably be concerned about what they witnessed against Celtic, it is much too early to write off Maresca’s hopes of guiding the club to success.
His Leicester team produced some eye-catching football on their way to promotion last season and Maresca is aiming to implement the same style at Chelsea.
With better players at his disposal and transfer activity to strengthen the squad, Maresca’s tactics could be the catalyst for Chelsea to force their way back into title contention this term.
However, this could be too much to ask for given how far they have fallen in recent years and finishing in the top four may be a more realistic aim.
Man City and Arsenal look nailed on to claim two of the Champions League qualification places, but Chelsea should be in the mix for one of the others.
Overhauling Liverpool is not beyond the realms of possibility given that Jurgen Klopp quit as their manager at the end of last season.
Arne Slot has replaced the German in the Anfield hot-seat, but there are no guarantees he will able to make his mark during his first season in England.
By contrast, Maresca spent a season working as one of Pep Guardiola’s assistants at Man City before being appointed as Leicester manager last summer.
Those experiences could give Maresca a valuable edge and may boost Chelsea’s chances of ending the 2024/25 Premier League campaign inside the top four.
