ENZO Maresca highlighted Chelsea’s newfound ability to “win ugly” as one big factor in their success this season after they added the Uefa Conference League trophy to Champions League qualification in the head coach’s first campaign in charge.
The Blues came from 1-0 down at half-time against Real Betis to win 4-1 in Wroclaw to become the first side to win all of the main European trophies.
Cole Palmer took the game by the scruff of the net with 25 minutes left when he crossed brilliantly for Enzo Fernandez to head in.
Nicolas Jackson made it 2-1 off his chest from another Palmer cross before Jadon Sancho superbly curled into the top corner from fellow substitute Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s pass and Moises Caicedo drove into the bottom-left corner from the edge of the penalty area in stoppage-time.
Maresca replaced Malo Gusto with club captain Reece James at half-time and Benoit Badiashile with Levi Colwill in the 62nd minute with the Blues still trailing to his mentor Manuel Pellegrini’s side. Maresca noted the reactions of both substituted players to the side scoring showed the togetherness of the club.
Chelsea won five of their last six league games, three of them 1-0 including on the last day at European rivals Nottingham Forest, to claim a Champions League place for next season.
“For sure we’ve improved a lot since we started,” Maresca said. “We also started to win games in an ugly way. That is something with a young squad that you struggle to do that, but I think, for instance, in the Nottingham Forest game we won in a little bit of an ugly way. We found the way to win the game, that was very, very important.
“And then the best picture for me for tonight that made me understand that we were in the right direction is when we scored the first two guys to celebrate was Malo Gusto and Benoit Badiashile. The two that we changed. And this, probably sometimes we judge games, but this for me, for a manager, when you change players that they are not playing good and they are the first that they enjoy the celebration, that means a lot. That means that the spirit is good, we’re going in the right direction, everyone is helping each other, and this is a good base to build something important.”
Maresca added: “Hopefully, it can be a starting point to build a winner mentality. You need to win games, you need to win competition. And for sure, the trophy we won tonight is going to make us better.
“But also, I’m very proud about the path or the journey we have done in the Premier League. But for me, it’s the most difficult competition in the world. You have to be consistent in 38 games. And these players, they showed. That’s why after Nottingham Forest, my outburst was a little bit exaggerated. But the reason why is just because in 38 games, you need to be consistent. And with the youngest squad in the history of the Premier League, it’s something unbelievable.”
Chelsea have a short break before the start of the Club World Cup in the United States.
Maresca dded: “Now we have ten days off. Ten days where we need to recover energy. And then we’re going to start the Club World Cup. The target, to be honest, is go game by game. Try to go step by step. But in this moment, we don’t have any target for the Club World Cup. Now the only target is to recover energy because the season has been very long. Don’t forget that we started the conference in the play-off, not even in the group. And it has been a long season.”
