Enzo Maresca believes Chelsea will be the team that dominates English football over the next five to 10 years.
Chelsea head to Southampton tomorrow night in third place in the Premier League, level with Arsenal but nine points adrift of runaway leaders Liverpool.
Maresca, who joined the Blues over the summer from Leicester, thinks it is too early in their development for Chelsea to maintain a title challenge between now and May but says the make-up of the squad means they will become the team to beat over the next decade.
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He said: “I’ve said, to be in the title race is nice pressure for me and for the players. It’s not the kind of pressure that you don’t like. It’s the kind of pressure you like because you are in the title race.
“But it’s not our case [this season]. Hopefully soon we can be there.”
He added: “The good thing is that I still think what I said to the owners and the sporting director the first time I met them.
“Because of the age and because of how good the squad is, for me, Chelsea – in the next five to 10 years – will be one of the teams, or the team, that is going to dominate English football.
“This is what I said to the club the first time I met them, no matter who the manager will be.
“They didn’t ask me for any targets; the only thing they asked me is to try to be, for the next years, something important. I think we are [going] in the right direction.”
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We are ahead of expectations – Maresca
Maresca inherited a mess at Stamford Bridge with a bloated squad and off-field issues around the ownership of the club. The Italian has worked wonders with Chelsea ahead of schedule and impressing in both domestic and European competition.
“In terms of expectation, we are ahead of my expectation, in the way we are playing and, for sure, in terms of results,” he said.
“We started four or five months ago; it’s very, very, very, very early, a short-time together. But the best feeling I have is that there are many things we can do better and we are [going] in the right direction.”
Southampton will be no pushovers
On paper, a trip to rock-bottom Southampton should be a routine assignment but Maresca described the game as Chelsea’s “toughest of the season so far”.
He said: “We need to be ready otherwise it will be a bad day for us and the reason why is because, if you analyse the results, they are there, but in terms of performance, they were winning against Liverpool, they lost 1-0 against [Manchester] City, they drew the last game against Brighton.
“The way they have played since last year – when I was in the Championship – I know them quite well. They are very brave and it’s very clear what they want; they want to keep the ball and we want the same.
“It will be a tough, tough game.”
No Fofana at St Mary’s
Centre-half Wesley Fofana will not make the trip to the south coast after limping off during Sunday’s win over Aston Villa.
Maresca was unable to provide any more news but admitted the Frenchman would be missing for some time.
“We don’t have any update at the moment, up until two days ago, so we need to wait a little bit and hopefully we can get some more news in the next days,” he said.
“But, for sure, he will be out for the next weeks.
“Benoit [Badiashile] could be one of the solutions, but we have different players that can play there.
“For sure, it’s a big loss because Wes was doing fantastic every game, but we need to accept it and find a solution.”
