Can it really be only three years since Manchester City and Chelsea were competing for the greatest prizes in club football? The 2021 Champions League finalists face off on Sunday in the marquee matchup of the Premier League's opening weekend, and yet only the loser on that day can realistically aspire to win the biggest prizes at home and abroad in 2024-25.
Indeed, in his first competitive match in charge of Chelsea, Enzo Maresca would be entitled to settle for nothing more than signs of progress against the reigning champions, a club he knows better than most after spells running their development squads and assisting Pep Guardiola. They have already met once since the Italian succeeded Mauricio Pochettino, in a match that continued the troubling trends that emerged during the Blues' preseason.
First, the good. Chelsea actually outshot City at Ohio Stadium and in their best moments you could see them quickly and effectively implementing some adjustments from last season that may serve Maresca well. Pushing both full backs and the midfield eights -- in this case Malo Gusto and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall -- high and wide dragged the opposition midfield further apart than it could afford to be. In the process Chelsea found themselves opening up spaces in the most dangerous areas of the pitch, the sort that Christopher Nkunku is well-placed to exploit (as will be Cole Palmer, who did not feature in preseason until the second half of their final game).
Nkunku takes the shot when he receives the ball in the position above, an understandable option for a forward looking to play himself into form after last season's injury issues, but there might have been other options. The other midfield eight, Enzo Fernandez, is crashing the box. Further wide, Mykhailo Mudryk is positioned well enough that he might be able to isolate City's left back (whether he could do anything in that position is another matter entirely).
That is what you want to see from Chelsea early on in a new manager's tenure, flashes of signs that they can manipulate high quality defenses to make space for themselves, even in preseason friendlies. Those have come: a bright first half against Inter, the elegant build up that culminated in Noni Madueke's goal against Real Madrid. In preseason Chelsea looked like a team who could get themselves shots, more even than their illustrious opponents.
Then again that might have something to do with the scoreline you can see in the top left corner above. A quarter of the match played and the Blues had already handed Erling Haaland two high quality scoring opportunities, the latter a sitter stemming entirely from Chelsea's inability to build from the back. Similar flaws would give the Norwegian his hat trick goal, his compatriot Oscar Bobb getting another.
On that occasion the pitch got some of the blame but the reality is that hardly a preseason game has gone by without cause for serious concern. Celtic, Real Madrid, Inter: all have profited from basic errors that shouldn't rear their head even in preseason, whether that be an inability to play through a press Chelsea try to bait, or a high defensive line without pressure on the ball.
That line is something Maresca is intent on changing, one of his first meetings with the squad focused on analyzing how pushing too high up the pitch had given up too many goals to Chelsea's opponent last season. The trade-off is that a more aggressive positioning of their backline allowed Pochettino's side to make the sixth most high turnovers last season while 45 of their 77 league goals began in the final third.
Given time, consistency of availability and a squad trimmed of its major bloat, perhaps things will work out for Maresca. His players at Leicester certainly admired the impact that Guardiola's one-time disciple made at the King Power Stadium, any semblance of the "family" environment that goalkeeper Mads Hermansen so admired under the Italian would go a long way to changing the mood at Chelsea. Ultimately, however, this will likely be much too soon for Chelsea's new manager to get one over on his former boss.
Scroll down for our predictions in all of the games on the opening day of the Premier League season:
Premier League Week 1 picks
Friday, August 16
Manchester United 2, Fulham 0
Saturday, August 17
Ipswich Town 1, Liverpool 3
Arsenal 2, Wolverhampton Wanderers 0
Everton 2, Brighton and Hove Albion 1
Newcastle 1, Southampton 0
Nottingham Forest 0, Bournemouth 0
West Ham 2, Aston Villa 0
Sunday, August 18
Brentford 1, Crystal Palace 1
Chelsea 1, Manchester City 3
Monday, August 19
Leicester City 0, Tottenham Hotspur 2