'Proven wrong' - Jamie Carragher is impressed with one key Enzo Maresca achievement at Chelsea

Jamie Carragher has been praising Enzo Maresca for the work he has done at Chelsea and the speed in which he has done it. The Blues finished last season in good form under Mauricio Pochettino, turning around a forgettable start to secure European qualification.

A managerial change over the summer threatened to undo all progress, especially with a relatively unproven boss like Maresca, who make some big decisions in his early days as manager. Maresca cut his squad dramatically, telling unwanted players to train away from the first team in a bid to finally end the bloated squad crisis at Stamford Bridge.

Despite initial criticism, the moves have worked for Maresca, who has Chelsea sitting inside the top four more than a quarter into the season. Maresca has settled on a starting XI for the most part, with key partnerships forming throughout the team.

The speed of the progress was certainly unexpected, and many have had to eat their words based on their pre-season predictions of where Chelsea will finish, and indeed how they would measure up to some of the best teams in the Premier League.

One of those who has admitted they were wrong is Sky Sports pundit Carragher, who told the Stick to Football podcast: “I think the manager has done a brilliant job and to be honest I have been proven wrong a bit with Chelsea this season, I didn’t see this.

“I thought it would be chopping and changing of players, and there was talk about leaving players out at the start of the season, but you go to a Chelsea game and you almost know what the team is. I thought that would be a problem, having so many players egos and people causing trouble on the training pitch, but that doesn’t seem to have happened, so fair play to the manager.”

Maresca pleased with start

Speaking after the Arsenal draw, Maresca spoke of how he is happy to be in third place and leading the pack of teams currently behind top two Liverpool and Manchester City, albeit with a slender margin.

"Very happy. For me, we are behind this kind of club, like City and Arsenal,” he said. “The reason why is because they work every single day in the last five years or nine years with the same manager, so we are behind them.

"This doesn't mean when we face them, we are not going to compete and try to win. Chelsea are one of the biggest clubs in Europe, in the world. Yes, we need to compete and try to win games. Tonight, we competed and tried to win the game and very soon we will win these kind of games."