The comparison with Mourinho’s glory days will be clear as he returns with Benfica, but Stamford Bridge hierarchy is firmly behind their current man
O
nly league champions get their picture on the wall in the Drake Suite at Stamford Bridge. The room is named after Ted Drake, the author of Chelsea’s first title, and features images of a host of club legends: a beaming Carlo Ancelotti, one of Antonio Conte kissing the Premier League trophy and, as Enzo Maresca no doubt noted as he arrived to preview his young side’s Champions League tie with Benfica, three photographs of the manager whose latest return to west London conjures wistful memories of the days when Chelsea were the most feared team in England.
Here comes the Special One. José Mourinho, who won three league titles across two spells at Chelsea, is in town with Benfica and will surely enjoy a wonderful reception. Maresca, meanwhile, inspires less warmth. He has taken Chelsea back into the Champions League, along with winning the Conference League and the Club World Cup, but does not have his name sung by fans and was booed after losing 3-1 to Brighton on Saturday.
There has been a lot of noise since the weekend, much of it focused on how consecutive defeats in the league to Manchester United and Brighton are hardly the ideal way to prepare for Mourinho. Chelsea remain fully behind Maresca, with the plan still to wait until the end of the season to evaluate the manager, but this is a big week. Maresca was right to call for calm, justifiably arguing that only in a “crazy world” does a manager have to defend his record after five defeats in six months, but he knows that the heat is on before Chelsea host Benfica on Tuesday night and Liverpool on Saturday.
