Enzo Maresca says Chelsea have a midfield that can challenge for Premier League title | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca believes Chelsea have the midfield in place for a future title challenge.

Romeo Lavia’a recent return to fitness has seen him start alongside two of Chelsea’s other big money midfielders – Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez.

The trio have rarely featured together this season and Maresca stressed the importance of continuity as his team look to secure Champions League qualification.

He said: “I think after the Liverpool game we played with same XI after 6 months. It’s important when you can continue with same players. Now we have Romeo [Lavia] back, Moises [Caicedo] is doing well, Enzo [Fernandez] is doing well, Cole [Palmer] is doing well.”

When probed on if he thinks that midfield is good enough to challenge for the title in the future, Maresca responded: “Absolutely, yes.”

The return to fitness and form for his midfield has come at the ideal time for Chelsea. The Blues have three more Premier League matches to contest as they chase Champions League qualification, facing fellow European hopefuls Newcastle next.

Maresca said: “It’s a huge one and United will be a big one, Forest will be a big one. Three more games, big games. Sunday is a chance to start in the correct way. We are in a good run, a good mood.”

Despite their drop-off in the second half of the campaign, highlighted by the goalscoring drought of Cole Palmer and Nicolas Jackson, the Blues boss was keen not to dwell on what could have been.

“We had many games where we created enough chances to win and we didn’t win,” he said. “Now is not the moment to think about that, now is the moment to try win as much as we can and then we see.”Standing in Chelsea’s way are a Newcastle side that Maresca admires: “They are very aggressive, especially when we are in our side. They go man-to-man. On their side they’re more medium block, it’s a team that is very strong, very aggressive.”

He also says it will take more than stopping in form Alexander Isak to beat Newcastle: “Isak is a top player but it’s not enough, they have more players, we need to work as a team and we need to stop them as a team.

“They also have Bruno Guimaraes, Tonali Murphy, Joelinton, Willock, they have different players, they are good players. I expect a huge game.

“We need to finish the top five, we need to be focused on us and try to win the three games. If it’s two or one [wins required] we don’t know, the focus is to win the three.”