'Serious' Maresca still has 'platform to succeed' at Chelsea

Chelsea are fourth under Maresca and on course to achieve their pre-season goals

This time last year, parts of the Chelsea's ownership were losing faith in Mauricio Pochettino but they have no such feeling with new manager Enzo Maresca.

Despite criticism and low-level discontent about the Italian's style of play from sections of the support, even after a run of four back-to-back wins, there remains an atypical sense of stability at Stamford Bridge.

For so long, under Roman Abramovich and at the beginning of the Boehly-Clearlake era, this club has felt impatient with managers and, therefore, chaotic.

But Maresca, 46, continues to deliver what those who hired him wanted. Defender Levi Colwill described Maresca as "serious" this week, which is something people privately say reflects his character.

At times, Maresca has come out swinging for the, at times, under-fire ownership, such is his belief in the project.

He has defended the size of the squad, the January transfer activity and remained calm when suffering a poor run of just two wins in 10 matches recently.

Much of that run is put down to bad luck internally. Players like Joao Felix left on loan as others like Nicolas Jackson and Marc Guiu got injured in a busy period of fixtures.

That led to workload issues that are being felt across the league but Chelsea have deliberately tried to carry a slightly bigger squad than other teams as they tried to battle on five fronts - with participation in the Club World Cup to come in the summer.

Chelsea's senior staff see Maresca's early season form as more instructive of the future and a blueprint for the future.

And Maresca is also benefiting from Chelsea beginning to settle. The post-ownership revolution is calming down and the base to succeed is believed to be in place now with the next piece of work being to turn the club into winners again.

That's why Champions League qualification is seen as such a big target and, unfortunately, Maresca's one mis-step was tripping up over his language when discussing the importance of finishing in the top four or five.

It seemed like he was playing it down but he has since corrected it - as Chelsea chase the prestige, revenue and sponsorship deals that come with qualification.

Missing out would not be fatal for his Maresca but would be viewed unfavourably.

It's interesting that earlier in the season Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola urged Chelsea to be patient in his former assistant, who he compared to his other protegee in Arsenal's Mikel Arteta.

As Chelsea travel to face Arsenal, it feels like faith remains in Maresca and he has a platform to succeed.