Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca has said that Manchester City are not out of the title race, saying that they will ‘be there’ at the end of the City.

The Italian, who spent time working as Pep Guardiola’s assistant at the Etihad Stadium has refused to rule his former side out of the race, despite their current form. City have won just one of their last 12 games in all competitions, and fell to a 2-1 defeat against Aston Villa in their last outing.

It leaves the reigning champions in seventh place in the Premier League table, 12 points adrift of leaders Liverpool with Arne Slot’s men having a game in hand. Maresca’s Chelsea sit in second place, four points behind Liverpool.

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However, the manager is still brushing off questions about his team being involved in the title race. Ahead of his side’s Boxing Day clash against Fulham, Maresca instead turned attention back onto City, attributing their current form to missing players due to injury.

“Manchester City at the end will be there,” he said. “They are in a moment that has never happened before.

“Every time they play a game, they have an injury, and they don’t have enough players in this moment. And the ones they have are not 100 per cent because they have just come back from injury, so it is a very bad situation.

“We are ahead of our expectations, in terms of the way we are playing, and the points we have, but the main focus is how we can improve the players and how we can improve the team.”

He added: “It is not about the (title) pressure for the players or for the club or for me, it is just the reality. I would like to have that kind of pressure and hopefully soon we can, but the reason why I said we are not there yet, is because the reality is that we are not.”

City will hope to return to winning way when they kick off the Boxing Day action in the early kick-off (12.30pm) against Everton at the Etihad Stadium. Three days later they travel to take on another of Maresca’s former sides, Leicester City at the King Power Stadiun (2.30pm kick-off).

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