Maresca keeps playing down title talk but predicts future dominationpublished at 11:38 Greenwich Mean Time
Southampton v Chelsea (Wed, 19:30 GMT)
Nizaar Kinsella
BBC Sport football news reporter
Enzo Maresca once again denied Chelsea can win the Premier League title this season – but says the club can dominate English football within the next four or five years.
Chelsea are third in the Premier League but level on points and goal difference with second-placed Arsenal.
The Blues have spent over £1.5 billion on players since Boehly and Clearlake Capital bought the club from Roman Abramovich and have begun to click, producing arguably the most dominant and impressive win of the season on Sunday at home to Aston Villa.
But this squad, according to Maresca, which is one of youngest in the league at just over 23 years old, lacks the experience to win the league having finished 12th and sixth in the last two seasons.
Yet that’s not to say that Maresca doesn’t think Chelsea can “dominate” in the coming years.
He said: “I said to the owners, because of the age and how good the squad is, for me Chelsea will be one of the teams or the team that dominates English football – this is what I said to the club when I met them.”
The title chat for this season is unlikely to go away anytime soon with Chelsea facing a trip to Southampton to begin a run of fixtures they are expected to win.