Enzo Maresca and his team are getting fantastic results to start the season, and that means just one thing: rising expectations.
The Italian coach is doing his best to play down those expectations, but it’s only natural that they start to climb. That’s inevitable when even his players are now breaking ranks and starting to say that they are targeting the top 4.
But that is a relatively modest aim. What Maresca was asked about in his presser today was competing with Arsenal and Man City at the top of the league – and he was careful to continue managing expectations.
Maresca plays down title talk
“I really don’t think we can compete with City or Arsenal,’ Maresca said. ‘I really don’t think that because we are not ready. The reason is City has worked with the same manager for nine years and Arsenal, five years. If you want to compete for big things, you need that time.
“After Arsenal beat PSG, they asked Luis Enrique and he said the same: that Arsenal have had the same manager for five years and us, a year-and-a-half. Now imagine us, three months.”
The PSG comparison is interesting – they’re also in the middle of a major rebuild using a lot of young players. Nobody would call them a small team, and like us they’ve got a huge budget and have spent big money, but they’re also moving to a new phase, and it will be interesting to compare the projects side by side.
We can understand Maresca wanting to keep everyone calm, but still, he could certainly be a little more positive than this. In any case, this kind of talk only comes around when a team is doing really well, so as frustrating as it will be for him to have to deal with it, it’s a very positive sign.
