How Enzo Maresca delivered a devastating blow on Leicester and used a new Chelsea system at the King Power

Chelsea showed no signs of weakness as goals from Nicolas Jackson and Enzo Fernandez secured a 2-1 win over Leicester in the Premier League. In all honesty, the scoreline should have been much wider, as Chelsea dominated possession and controlled the game, with 80% possession in the first 30 minutes.

In fact, Noni Madueke scored, but in what was the tightest of margins, VAR intervened and ruled that Marc Cucurella, who had fed him the ball, was in an offside position. This meant the score remained 1-0 until Fernandez added a second in the second half.

Jordan Ayew scored a consolation goal for the Foxes, but it did little to alter the outcome. Maresca surprised Leicester with his tactical setup, which rattled them and threw them off balance. Some of the changes were forced by injury, but the way he deployed three No. 10s made it incredibly difficult for Leicester to get anything going.

For many who might have expected Maresca’s former player to know a thing or two about his tactics, the Chelsea manager caught everyone off guard. He decided to have Marc Cucurella, who many thought would invert to create an overload in midfield, instead hold width on the left and focus on crossing—something that caused Leicester all sorts of problems.

Chelsea have been incredibly flexible under the Italian manager. While many thought he had only one way of playing during his time in the Championship, he’s proven himself capable of adapting, switching tactics almost from one game to the next.

At the King Power, there was only one No. 6-Moises Caicedo-while the rest of the players were positioned further forward, making it tough for Leicester to contain Chelsea’s attacking threat. Leicester are in trouble, and their injury woes aren’t helping, but they also make things difficult for themselves.

At the time of writing, Chelsea are the third-best team in the league, although other teams still have matches to play. However, it seems unlikely that anyone will overtake them this weekend. When Maresca took over from Mauricio Pochettino, not many gave him a chance to turn things around so quickly, but he’s done so in record time.

The fans are buzzing, and the away supporters made sure to acknowledge him by clapping him off. There are still a few doubters who think Chelsea could do even better when facing teams higher up the table, but to get this young crop of players playing for each other and creating a competitive environment is no small feat. Maresca deserves credit for that.

Chelsea are going places and look set to be a formidable force in the Europa Conference League. They have 11 games in the next 40 days, with little time to rest, as the race for the top four heats up. But the fact that they are beating teams they should and barely conceding will undoubtedly delight the owners.