Maresca: Catching Liverpool Could Be “Impossible”

• Enzo Maresca says it may be “impossible” for any club to catch Liverpool in the title race.
• The Chelsea boss confirmed Cole Palmer will be carefully managed after his groin injury.
• Maresca warned his side not to underestimate Lincoln in Tuesday’s Carabao Cup tie.

Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has admitted it may prove “impossible” for any club to stop Liverpool defending their Premier League title after Arne Slot’s side made a perfect start to the campaign.

Liverpool, champions with four games to spare last season, already hold a five-point advantage at the top of the table. In contrast, Chelsea slipped seven points adrift after a 2-2 draw at Brentford was followed by a 2-1 defeat to Manchester United.

The scale of Liverpool’s summer spending underlines their ambition, with a record £116 million move for Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen followed by a British-record £125m deal for Alexander Isak on deadline day. Their outlay exceeded £400m in total, strengthening a squad already packed with quality.

Maresca was candid about the challenge his team and others are facing. “If they continue in this way I think it is impossible to catch them, not just for us, but for all the clubs,” he said. “They have been doing a fantastic job since last year, and the players they have decided to buy shows the intention of the club to go again for the Premier League and the Champions League, and that is quite clear.”

Chelsea, meanwhile, are winless in three matches in all competitions after also falling to Bayern Munich in the Champions League. Their Carabao Cup campaign resumes on Tuesday against League One side Lincoln City, but the focus remains on the injury status of Cole Palmer, who was forced off with a groin issue during the first half against United.

The 23-year-old has been limited to just two league starts this season, and Maresca stressed the need to manage him carefully. “The medical staff, they didn’t mention to me about surgery,” he explained. “I don’t know if in the next days or the next weeks, but I don’t think so, to be honest.

“But we need to protect Cole, 100%. Because of the Club World Cup, and we never stopped, we need to manage and protect different players, and Cole is one of them. Now we have a meeting with the medical staff and decide the best solution for him. It is not an injury which is black and white. It is an injury which on some days you can be better and the pain disappears, and sometimes you can be worse so that is why we have to manage it day by day.”

With Palmer likely unavailable, Maresca is set to turn to academy players for the tie at Lincoln. He warned against complacency, however, despite Chelsea’s status as overwhelming favourites. “Personally, I would prefer to play against a Premier League team rather than a League One team because these are the kind of games that worry me most because you can underestimate the opposition,” he admitted. “It is something we need to avoid, do our job and then focus on the Premier League [against Brighton] on Saturday.”