Pep Guardiola has come to the defense of his former assistant, Enzo Maresca, following Manchester City’s 4-2 win over Chelsea. The match took place at Ohio Stadium in Columbus on Saturday, where the Blues faced a defeat against their Premier League rivals in a pre-season friendly.
Manchester City, led by Erling Haaland’s impressive hat-trick, surged to an early 4-0 lead. Chelsea managed to score two late goals through Raheem Sterling and Noni Madueke, but the comeback was insufficient to change the outcome of the game.
Despite Chelsea’s defensive lapses involving players such as Malo Gusto, Levi Colwill, Tosin Adarabioyo, Moises Caicedo, and Sterling, Guardiola attributed the mistakes to the pitch conditions rather than Enzo Maresca’s tactics. Guardiola emphasized that under normal conditions, such errors would not have occurred and noted that the issues would not have arisen at Stamford Bridge.
Guardiola also praised Maresca’s coaching vision and tactics, stating, “I saw what Enzo wants to do and I like it. I don’t make a compliment because he’s my friend and helped me for the year of the treble. But I saw today many things that I know he is going to do.” He expressed confidence in Maresca’s potential to succeed at Chelsea and stressed that expecting immediate success was unrealistic. Guardiola remains confident that Maresca will achieve great things in his role with Chelsea over time.