Enzo Maresca reignites Chelsea controversy after clear resignation message

It took Enzo Maresca five months before he threatened to leave Leicester City if he didn't feel a total commitment to his way of playing football throughout the club. He has reached that same point at Chelsea.

The difference here is that when Maresca took the fight to Foxes supporters at the end of January last year, his side were 10 points clear at the top of the table. At Stamford Bridge he is more than four months removed from the last truly positive run of performances and results tied together.

Securing Champions League football looks tougher and tougher after taking two points from the most winnable remaining games over the past eight days. The draw to Brentford combined with beating Tottenham was almost tolerable in the larger picture even if it was a missed opportunity. Four points from those matches was a bare minimum The picture has changed.

Their decent enough standing remains more down to their rivals being inconsistent rather than Chelsea being good. Given what is ahead, Chelsea have made the task at hand much trickier and it was already perilous.

And now Maresca is taking a daring line in the public. . The lack of noise at Stamford Bridge is not a new problem and is very much a topic of ongoing conversation, but Maresca's comments on Sunday are risky and many will interpret them as being out of order.

"I think we lost a little bit of confidence, because we conceded, probably because of the environment,". "This is the moment that you have to continue doing the right things and don't change the plan.

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"Also because we are a team that most of the time, our goal kick will start from playing short. The second goal, we decide to play long, because the environment is there, and we concede the second one. You have to be strong, you have to continue with the things that you are doing."

The contrast in reaction from Manchester City, a team of champions and titans still hurting and reeling during a horror-show season, when they went 2-0 down to Crystal Palace on Saturday afternoon, and what Chelsea served up was stark. City were level before the break and stood up before going on to win at a canter against much better opposition.

The inexperience and youth shone through and struggled to deal with the daggers and expectation of the home supporters. Players shrank and shrivelled up before regrouping at half-time. A point was ultimately deserved based on the chances created, but that counts for very little.

Maresca continued after the game: "Because probably we conceded the goal, and they decided to play a long ball. But sometimes, I said many times, sometimes you go long, it doesn't mean that you are going to control something. The second goal we conceded is for that.

"And then in terms of fans, I said many times, we are stronger with our fans, we are a better team. It's up to them to decide the way. For sure today, probably, with the 0-1, 0-2, it's normal to be the way they were."

What Maresca hinted at here is the crux of the point. and seemed to try to leverage and excuse the faults in his team's performance. This is a game of correlation and causation, though.

(see: Chelsea 1-0 Tottenham) but have offered such little to actually get behind for much of 2025. Many will say that support has to be unconditional but after three years of turmoil, a large portion of this fanbase are simply tired and fatigued.

They feel lied to and let down by the owners and decision makers. They feel a connection with very few of the players and the emotional state is still fragile. Chelsea went from second and singing about being 'back' to protests outside Stamford Bridge within three months. That is not normal but is entirely understandable.

Maresca appears to have missed this, though, because asking for more and even touching on blaming fans for the team's displays simply will not cut it. He is opening himself up to a war when in a position of weakness.

At Leicester his standing eroded over time; there was not the outpouring of sadness that he eventually left to join Chelsea despite winning the league and gaining promotion. This says plenty as Maresca told Leicester fans how to view his football and tried to take the high ground when explaining it.

"Probably the people, they think it’s easy to win games, but it’s not easy," he said on that night in January before suggesting he would leave if the trust and believe in him was not wholehearted. "I just want to remind that we have played 34 official games and we have won 26. That is a huge number and probably the people they think it’s easy to win games. But it’s not like this.

"You can feel the fans when they’re not happy. Probably some people they take some things for granted. But it’s not like this. Twenty-six wins out of 34. It’s something unbelievable. Probably when you win, win, win at home, and you continue to win, people think it’s easy. But it’s not easy.

"I arrive in this club to play with this idea. The moment there is some doubt about the idea, the day after, I will leave. It’s so clear. No doubts."

As it showed at Leicester, this does not sit well with those who watch on and are less than pleased with how things are going. For Chelsea it harks back to Maurizio Sarri's ill-fated time in charge.

After Chelsea's win over Leicester last month, Maresca hit back at some of the boos and groans. Given that some were already reaching boiling point after a half of passive football against one of the worst teams in the land, it was not a well-timed comment.

Chelsea did at least go on to win there. On Sunday they fell short when everything should have been in their favour. Patience in the head coach and his methods is wearing extremely thin, even when there is widespread acceptance that more serious flaws at the club go above him.

Some of the issues of Maresca's play style and personality (which were highlighted at the start of the season) are coming through at the worst time. Of all the managers Maresca has faced (at least) twice this season, the only one he has beaten on the second occasion is Ange Postecoglou and Tottenham.

Recent victories over Leicester and Southampton - which came off the back of wins against Wolves and West Ham - were all with new head coaches in the dugout compared to earlier in the season. It suggests that teams have found a way to nullify Chelsea after seeing what they are all about.

That much passes the eye test. More sides set up deep and are happy to let Chelsea dominate the ball. Arsenal did so once 1-0 up and faced very few problems. Leicester made life difficult with a back five, whilst Ipswich were aggressive in their counter attack on Sunday, and that mirrored their game from the reverse fixture.

Even without the three top scorers under Kieran McKenna this season, Ipswich scored two in the first half to send SW6 into meltdown. The outcome was a chorus of boos at the break but the dissatisfaction started as soon as Julio Enciso's opener went in.

Chelsea had been good for the first 20 minutes but did not react well at all to the setback. They haven't scored a first half goal in almost two months (eight matches), and although there have been remedies for the second 45 on most occasions, the tempo and dynamism has often grated.

Maresca's possession-heavy and control-seeking demands have taken away much of the excitement which flowed through the team between September and December. The longer Maresca has been in charge, not only have Chelsea gotten worse results but they have looked it as well.

Counter attacks are regularly stopped in favour of passing backwards to find the right build-up shape and individual form has plummeted. Nicolas Jackson and Cole Palmer have been out of sorts throughout 2025 and have just two goals between them in that time. Both were for Palmer and the last one came on January 14.

Noni Madueke has been more direct since his return from injury but is still not yet a reliable source of goals.

All of this has gone to make Chelsea an increasingly frustrating team to watch. They are profligate in the opposition box once there - and that can often take incredibly long periods of carefully choreographed passing to get there - and leave themselves open on the break.

It is the antithesis of what the great Chelsea teams of the past have been and that it why fans have been so vocal in their disappointment and anger towards displays over an extended timeframe. Maresca can try and fight back but it isn't something that will flow with those who he is up against.

History tells us that it usually only ends one way and once Chelsea fans have taken a dislike to someone or something, they rarely change their minds. For better or worse, Maresca is about to discover just how ruthless they can be.