Enzo Maresca has insisted that Chelsea's "biggest achievement" of the past 12 months is not reaching the Club World Cup final.

On Sunday night, Maresca will take charge of the final game of a mammoth first campaign at Stamford Bridge as Chelsea square off against Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain in New Jersey.

While the Blues have enjoyed a lucrative run to the final, they will take equal satisfaction from outperforming many of their European rivals to reach the showpiece occasion.

With a top-four finish in the Premier League and a Conference League trophy having also been achieved in recent months, Maresca can be delighted with his opening season in West London.

Nevertheless, the Italian has claimed that the performances on the pitch are not necessarily what he takes the most pride from.

Chelsea change the perception

Prior to the start of 2024-25, talk continued over the size of Chelsea's squads and the youthful age of the group of players that Maresca was working with.

Speaking at his pre-match press conference, Maresca spoke of how the perception of Chelsea had changed, the club receiving minimal criticism over their approach in the transfer market and building for the future.

Maresca said, as quoted by football.london: "I think the team deserves all the trust from them, because during this season, we finished top four in the Premier League, won the conference, and played the Club World Cup. I think it has been a great season.

"For me, the biggest achievement of this season is that exactly one year ago, no one was talking about Chelsea, about football, everyone was talking about Chelsea, about big squad, big money, these kinds of things. Now, no one is talking about this.

"Now everyone is talking about Chelsea, the way we play, the way we win games, and this is personally the biggest achievement of this season."

Under-rated recent form

Since the surprise 2-1 defeat at home to Legia Warsaw in the Conference League quarter-finals, Chelsea have put together a run of 13 wins from 15 matches in all competitions.

The only two defeats that they have suffered during that period are against Newcastle United and Flamengo, Nicolas Jackson being sent off on both occasions.

Six clean sheets have also been kept in 11 games, although that will clearly be put to the test against a free-scoring PSG outfit.

As well as scoring 24 goals in their last eight matches, PSG have also kept seven clean sheets, the only goal that has been conceded being in a 1-0 defeat to Botafogo.

Written by
Darren Plant