Arsenal Manager Mikel Areta said that he knew that Chelsea would be “candidate” to win the Premier League title by watching the Enzo Maresca team in the pre-season.
The Gunners take second place on Sunday with their London rivals into the top river on Sunday, a yawn of 15 points behind Runaway League leader Liverpool. Chelsea are six points back. The blues were second in mid -December before enabling a lazy start to 2025.
The Chelsea counterpart from Areta, Maresca, always emphasized that his team had no business in a Premier League title -a point that its players emphasized -but the Arsenal boss was firmly convinced that he had always discovered their potential.
“From the moment I saw her play in the previous season and understood how Enzo works and what talent you have in the squad, you were candidates to win it from the start,” Areta told the media gathered this week.
“You have so much there. The moment everything is together and you find this connection, energy and consistency, I think that you can compete with every team.”
Similar to Areta, Maresca has improved his coaching skills in Manchester City under the direction of Pep Guardiola. The insistence of the Italian on the use of a patient monitoring approach has been criticized by an unfortunate audience of the Stamford Bridge in the past few weeks and months, but Areta wanted to be his opposite number.
“He is a great coach,” enthused the Spanish boss. “He is very clear what he wants to do, he was very clear what he wants and how he does. I like the way his team plays.”
The admiration of Areta for Maresca would undoubtedly have been strengthened by the 1-1 draw, which Chelsea had earned against Arsenal on Stamford Bridge at the beginning of this season. The blues have not beaten their main competitors since August 2021 – when Thomas Tuchel was responsible and Romelu Lukaku led the line. Arsenal’s current strips of six unbeaten games in this game between 1995 and 2005 is its longest since a run of 19.