Enzo Maresca Blocks Out Media Hype as Chelsea Begin New Season

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca enters the 2025-26 Premier League campaign with calm confidence, brushing off the chatter from pundits and media predictions.

Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca isn’t letting pre-season predictions set the tone for the year ahead, even with pundits tipping his side for another big campaign.

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As the Blues prepare for their 2025-26 opener against Crystal Palace, the Italian remains locked in on the work happening inside Cobham.

“For me, this shows how good the team were last season,” Maresca said as Chelsea's official website quoted, referring to the fact that several pundits have placed Chelsea in their top four this year. “When I joined the club one year ago, the noise was completely different compared to now, for many reasons.”

The shift in opinion is stark - twelve months ago, only a fraction of experts believed Chelsea would trouble the top spots. But Maresca is uninterested in plotting out the season months in advance.

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“Now, personally, I don’t like to look ahead two, three, four months. That doesn’t exist in football. I like to be focused on the game against Crystal Palace, and then in terms of target, my personal target for the team is to improve every day. Then we see what happens.”

The Blues’ resurgence last term was built on a season of collective work, something Maresca is proud of but equally determined to surpass. “We are a better team for sure compared to one year ago, and the reason why is because we have worked together every day for one season,” he explained.

“What the club and team achieved in the first season was top, fantastic. Finishing in the Champions League, winning the Conference League, the European competition we were in, and winning the Club World Cup. It was quite difficult to achieve more than this. But now is a new season, so let’s see.”

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Sunday’s match marks the first step in that fresh chapter. And if there’s one takeaway from Maresca’s stance, it’s that outside opinions won’t steer Chelsea’s path. Only the work on the pitch will.