Enzo Maresca has had his say on Gary Neville’s famous billion pound bottle job comments ahead of Chelsea’s Carabao Cup tie with Newcastle on Wednesday.
The Blues have made a good start to life under the Italian and currently sit fifth in the league, just one point behind Arsenal in third.
Chelsea face a big week as after the Newcastle game they travel to Old Trafford to face Manchester United on Sunday, with Maresca revealing his plans have had to change following the sacking of Erik ten Hag.
Maresca on Neville’s billion pound bottle job comments
Chelsea are still searching for their first piece of silverware under the Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital ownership and the aim will be to achieve that this season, but Maresca also stated no one at the club has told him he must finish in the top four.
The Blues were within touching distance of getting their hands on the Carabao Cup last season, but suffered a heartbreaking defeat to Liverpool in extra time.
During that game Neville described Chelsea as billion pound bottle jobs, with his comments making a lot of headlines at the time.
In the build-up to the game at St James’ Park Maresca was asked about the comments and gave an interesting answer.
“I didn’t hear it, but I still remember watching TV, they showed the number of finals Liverpool’s players had played & the number of finals Chelsea’s players played,” he told reporters as cited on X.com.
“The difference was huge. That shows the difference between the two clubs at the moment. The reason I say in this moment we are not close [to Liverpool] is because you need to live moments, you need that experience to improve things.”
It really feels like Chelsea have made a lot of improvement from the end of last season and this group of players will no doubt be better off for experiences like that and will be determined to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
A win on Wednesday night would see Chelsea advance to the quarter finals and would possibly be just three games away from a return to Wembley.
