It has been a great start to the season for Chelsea. With 17 games played in the Premier League, Blues supporters really could not have wished for much more.

Seventeen games played, 10 victories, five draws and just two defeats to their name. Enzo Maresca has taken the Premier League by storm and shows no sign of stopping anytime soon.

Chelsea have gone from people viewing them as massive underachievers with a squad of players that cost the club too much, to a really exciting young team on their way to trophies in the very near future. However, as Maresca consistently points out; there is so much room for improvement, as Bobby Vincent discusses below...

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Defensive vulnerability

On the face of it, the defensive side to Chelsea right now does not look too bad. Only Liverpool and Arsenal have conceded fewer goals in the Premier League this season than the Blues. But there are times where Chelsea have looked really vulnerable at the back.

It does not help that Wesley Fofana is currently absent through injury, after he and Levi Colwill had started to form a potentially really strong partnership in the centre of the Chelsea defence. Instead, Maresca has had to adapt.

Tosin Adarabioyo has done a stellar job deputising for Fofana and Benoit Badiashile, with the defender's best game in a Chelsea shirt coming in the goalless draw with Everton at the weekend. However, we're yet to see a version of Chelsea that look airtight at the back - a team that you can trust seeing out a game when the pressure is on.

It is difficult to coach and if I knew the answer, then I would not be writing this right now. But look at Arne Slot's Liverpool, for example, who sit top of the table at Christmas. He has managed to coach the Reds to become a really strong defensive unit while finding the balance to allow his side to be an attacking force at the other end.

Maresca quite often points out that while he is satisfied with what his players are doing defensively, there is definitely some room for improvement there. Well, in 2025, he and his coaching staff will continue their tireless work behind the scenes to ensure it is an area that is improved.

Palmer situation

It has been a fabulous 2024 for Cole Palmer but his own personal success has been his worst enemy in some ways. Now that teams are aware of Palmer's incredible, generational talent, they have Palmer-specific plans each game.

Liverpool were able to nullify Palmer's threat by allowing Curtis Jones to man-mark him at Anfield a couple of months ago. Everton did similar to Palmer on Sunday. It is getting even more difficult for Chelsea's No.20 to find the space he so desperately craves in matches.

"The next step forward for Cole is to get used to playing with that situation [being man-marked] - he has to learn and you can see sometimes he gets frustrated because it is not easy being man-marked for 90 to 95 minutes," Maresca said in October. "But all of the players at that level get used to being marked man-to-man."

So, naturally, that is the next step for Palmer. You would back him to figure it out over the next 12 months, too, and make himself even more of an incredible footballer.

Players to leave

While this is not solely Maresca's job and falls more under the co-sporting directors' job roles, there are some players that are likely to leave in January or the summer. For Maresca, it is his job to identify the players he can live without and the ones that he wants to keep around with the rest of the squad.

Things could very busy on the outgoing front for the west Londoners in January. The likes of Ben Chilwell and Carney Chukwuemeka have been told they can leave by Maresca, while Disasi, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Cesare Casadei all continue to be linked with a move away from Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea are happy with their squad and the size of it, despite some people stating the player list is too large. However, with no European football now until March, there are less and less chances for Maresca to rotate as heavily as he has been doing - meaning those that are not getting enough minutes have even less opportunity now.