With each passing week, the UEFA Conference League is growing in importance for Chelsea and their head coach Enzo Maresca. It was not meant to be like this.
When the campaign began, the Conference League was not the priority. Maresca showed that by leaving Cole Palmer, Wesley Fofana and Romeo Lavia out of the squad registered for the group phase.
Maresca turned to fringe and academy players to get the results required, letting most of his first XI rest for the Premier League games that followed. Such was the standard of the opposition, Chelsea won all six of their matches to top the table and comfortably reach the last 16.
Chelsea’s entry into Europe’s third-tier competition was initially greeted with an air of disappointment within the club. By finishing sixth in the Premier League last season, they would have qualified for the more financially rewarding Europa League but Manchester United’s surprise victory over Manchester City in the FA Cup final demoted them to the Conference League.
Yet now there is a possibility Chelsea’s chances of playing European football in the 2025-26 season will depend on winning a competition they did not really want to be in. The winners of the Conference League final in May go into the Europa League next season.
Maresca spoke on the eve of Saturday’s Premier League defeat against Aston Villa, their fifth loss in nine league fixtures, about how qualifying for the Champions League via a top four/five finish is the club’s target.
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And a glance at the standings suggests that is still achievable despite the recent downturn.
After Saturday’s games, Chelsea sit sixth on 43 points, four points behind third-placed Nottingham Forest, who play another contender for a Champions League spot in Newcastle United (41 points, eighth) on Sunday. Fourth-placed Manchester City are on 44 points before their game with leaders Liverpool later on Sunday.
Cole Palmer has been added to Chelsea’s Conference League squad (Darren Staples/AFP via Getty Images)
The form table over the last 10 Premier League matches provides the most significant gauge of Chelsea’s situation. A return of just nine points puts them in 16th spot, with only the eight points collected by beleaguered Manchester United (15th in the overall table) and the three clubs in the relegation zone (Ipswich Town, five points; Southampton, four points; and Leicester City, three points) below them.
Should the trend continue, this will not be good enough to secure Champions League football, and will knock them out of contention for the Europa League and Conference League spots as well. The teams they are competing with around them are doing better.
An orderly queue of clubs is forming up behind them, ready to overtake. When Chelsea defeated Brentford 2-1 on December 15 to secure their fifth league win in a row, the gap between themselves in second to 10th in the division was 11 points. Their advantage over 10th spot now, which is currently occupied by Fulham who beat them 2-1 at Stamford Bridge on December 26, is a mere four points.
Other signs of the negative momentum include no clean sheets in nine consecutive league games, during which they have scored more than one goal on just two occasions. It does not take a mathematical genius to figure out such statistics do not lead to many victories.
On Friday in his press conference, Maresca claimed Chelsea’s remaining home games can make the difference. He said: “We have 13 games to go (12 now) and seven of them are at home. Winning the seven at home can be enough to finish top four.”
Six of Chelsea’s opponents are in the lower half of the table (the other fixture being against leaders Liverpool) so on paper at least, Maresca’s optimism is merited. The home run begins on Tuesday night with the visit of bottom club Southampton and second-from-bottom Leicester City are after that.
It represents a great opportunity for Chelsea to restore some much-needed confidence, but because of their predicament, the pressure on them to get maximum points is going to be huge. The players’ body language on the pitch in recent weeks, including at Villa Park as a 1-0 half-time lead ended in a morale-sapping 2-1 defeat, suggests they are struggling to cope with such expectations.
Chelsea have not won away from home for over two months and have lost four successive matches in all competitions away from Stamford Bridge. Their remaining away fixtures — Arsenal, Brentford, Fulham, Newcastle and Nottingham Forest — are all difficult. It is hard to see their record improving significantly, which again puts them under even more duress to win every home game.
That takes us back to the Conference League. With UEFA allowing three changes to the squad for the knockout phase, Palmer’s name was added to the list before the deadline this month. While not a surprise, it was a sign Chelsea and Maresca are taking it more seriously, that they want to lift this piece of silverware.
They have been the strong favourites to win the trophy from the start and such talk has increased after being drawn against Danish side Copenhagen in the last 16.
Maresca was not hired last June to win the Conference League. But if things do not improve in the Premier League soon, it could be the only thing left to salvage Chelsea’s season.
(Top photo: Clive Mason/Getty Images)
