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Ask any football fan to pick out a basket-case club, a stranger than fiction story or embark on a more serious discussion of where it’s tough to see the real plan, and in all three cases it’s fair to suggest Chelsea might have been the answer this summer.
The Blues rode another wave of spending and selling, rebalancing and ostracising, all the while taking a ride on another managerial merry-go-round. There was no plausible way to decide if Enzo Maresca was good enough or not to hold the position before the 2024/25 campaign got underway; as a head coach who had never managed a top-flight game in any league, in any nation, there simply wasn’t proof of such either way.
For a club with the aspirations and spending power Chelsea have, that alone was enough for some to say this was another bizarre, bold or bad decision - yet a handful of games into the campaign, perhaps we are seeing the first signs now that the former Leicester boss and Sevilla midfielder is starting to get a hold of his squad, show them what he wants and, most importantly, get a few parts of that shown back to him during matches.
That’s quite something to say only one fixture removed from a defeat to Servette, who finished third in the Swiss top flight last term.
But while Maresca’s full masterplan may yet be some distance away, there are signs that he has the tools at his disposal and the early understanding between them which could both buy him time to implement his true ideals, and also propel Chelsea high enough up the table to give their trigger-happy board enough reason to, this time, stick with their latest chosen figurehead.
That means the ‘now’ might prove doubly important when, later, there are inevitably trickier times. Mauricio Pochettino, after all, won his last five in the league to clinch European football last term - and still lost his job.
Maresca faces an upcoming run which, if not precisely easy, could at least be termed forgiving before the next international break: four Premier League games, Gent in the Conference League and Barrow in the EFL Cup. Of the four top-flight encounters, Brighton are the hardest opponents and they visit Stamford Bridge. A trip to West Ham might be as testing as it gets - contextually difficult, sure, but nothing like playing one of the big-hitters Chelsea themselves aspire to return to being.
It means they - coaching staff, playing squad, club as a whole - must seize the moment somewhat and, even if not exactly playing in the manner Maresca envisages long term, even if not a perfectly cohesive unit just now, make the most of the clear positives they have shown thus far.
For example, the spaces between central midfield and central defence are obviously not yet ideal. A midfield partnership which actually works is yet to be revealed. The amount of chances the goalkeepers are having to deal with is far from perfect. The fact they’ve kept one clean sheet in five isn’t great, while worse numbers show they’ve only won once in the league and, even three games in, only three clubs have conceded more goals than them.
Yet there are plenty of plus points at the opposite end of the pitch, where only Man City - one of Chelsea’s three opening opponents - have scored more.
The bulk of course came in one game, a thrashing of Wolves, but that match showed what this outrageous collection of attackers is capable of, given space to thrive and time to gel.
Noni Madueke looks in form and confident, Cole Palmer’s productivity hasn’t dropped off, Nicolas Jackson is getting plenty of chances and the depth is there to ensure competition for places - among those that remain following a summer clear-out - keeps performance levels high.
If Chelsea cannot, at this stage, manage and control games in the way Maresca wants to, then Bournemouth, West Ham, Brighton and Nottingham Forest perhaps represents the run of fixtures which should allow them to simply out-gun rivals, outfox them with a rotating cast of creative talent or find a way to bulldoze themselves to points by sheer array of attacking options.
Points on the board early on don’t just set a platform for improved league finishes; at Stamford Bridge, they might buy the time needed for a genuine revolution on the pitch.
