It took until the final day of the Premier League season, but Chelsea secured UEFA Champions League football for 2025/2026.
They followed that up with a UEFA Conference League trophy, coming from behind against Real Betis to win dominantly with a 4-1 scoreline.
The Blues path to the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup trophy has opened up, and they now look like strong contenders.
Enzo Maresca has Chelsea in a better position than they had been under Mauricio Pochettino.
The Pep Guardiola disciple still has a long way to go to make Chelsea a genuine Premier League and Champions League contender, but the pieces are there.
One aspect of Chelsea that needs to improve if they are going to compete at the top of the Premier League or go deep in the Champions League is their ability to break down low blocks.
At one point last season, they put together an eight-game winning streak and were competing with Liverpool at the top of the table.
What followed was a string of matches against primarily low-block defending teams, such as Everton, Fulham, and Ipswich Town.
The goals, along with the results, began to dwindle.
As the season progressed, Maresca did not have an answer for how the Blues would effectively and consistently break down teams that would sit very deep and compact against them.
In large part, it was both a tactical and personnel issue.
In this tactical analysis article, we will explore Maresca’s philosophy of unlocking an opponent sitting in a low block and how some of Chelsea’s new signings, like Liam Delap and Jamie Gittens, can help fix these issues.
Enzo Maresca Tactics Vs Low Blocks
Maresca uses the same concepts as Pep Guardiola when it comes to low blocks.
When they build up in a 3-2-5, their main goal is to overload the middle of the pitch, with the wingers or, in some instances, full-backs providing width.
Here is where their problems begin.
Maresca wants to have control and a solid rest defence to maintain possession and counterpress quickly once Chelsea win the ball.
In many aspects, it’s a good strategy because it limits your opponents ability to hit you on the counter effectively.
Still, its not always the most efficient one if you want to create many high-quality chances—that depends on many factors, including game state, opposition, and personnel.
From the beginning of February until the end of the season, Chelsea held more than 55% possession in nine of their final 14 Premier League matches.
In those nine matches, they averaged 1.14 non-penalty expected goals.
Therefore, possession did not necessarily translate to more chances.
What often happens to Chelsea is that they try to maintain a five-man central overload to force their way through the midfield, but there is simply no space to get through.
See this situation against Ipswich:
Or this situation against Brighton:
Or even most recently, this situation against Benfica:
Cole Palmer and Enzo Fernándezs operation as dual number 10s trying to find space between the lines only works when there is space for them to receive the ball and find a teammate.
