Jamie Carragher completes Chelsea U-turn and reveals key way Enzo Maresca has 'proven him wrong'
Jamie Carragher has issued an honest verdict on Chelsea's start to the 2024/25 season under Enzo Maresca. Following the premature departure of Mauricio Pochettino, another chaotic campaign at Stamford Bridge was expected, however Maresca has thus far done an excellent job.
From a total of 18 games in all competitions, Chelsea have picked up 10 victories with only four defeats suffered and just two of those in Premier League action. As such, only Liverpool and Manchester City, the two teams to have beaten Chelsea, sit above them in the table with a better goal difference keeping them above Arsenal.
The last five fixtures have also been far from straightforward for Chelsea and Maresca with trips to Liverpool and Manchester United coming between welcoming the Gunners and Newcastle to Stamford Bridge. Early-season high-flyers Nottingham Forest have also taken on Chelsea in the last few weeks.
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Only six points were picked up out of a possible 15 from those fixtures but it has firmly kept Chelsea in the top-four race and the performances have also seen them labelled as outsiders for the title. It does start to become easier in the lead up to Christmas though, with the Blues facing all three newly-promoted sides before 2025 begins.
Starting with a clash away at Maresca's former club Leicester, Chelsea will be keen to build some momentum as the busy festive period approaches with Carragher seemingly backing them to do exactly that. "I’ve been proven wrong a bit with Chelsea this season, the manager has done a brilliant job," he admitted on The Stick to Football podcast.
"I thought it would be like chop and changing players, egos and so many players but when you go to a match now you know what their team is going to be." Back in August, Carragher was rather brutal in his assessment of Chelsea as he predicted them to finish seventh.
"This (Chelsea) is not a young and exciting team," he admitted on Sky Sports. "I don’t know why any player would look at Chelsea and sign for them, the only reason could be is their agent is saying we’re getting a 7 year deal on big money, that’s guaranteed money for 7 years.
"You’re asking where Joao Felix is going to play. Do you know what I want to ask you? Where is he getting changed at the training ground? I’m serious. They haven’t got a goalkeeper or a centre forward! Chelsea need to stop buying players and players need to stop joining them."
It must be mentioned that one of Carragher's points has been proven somewhat true with Robert Sanchez has coming under some pressure for a few of his performances. However, the Blues have been scoring for fun with Nicolas Jackson average a goal every 150 minutes.