Enzo Maresca clarifies Premier League top four target amid Chelsea's injury problems

Enzo Maresca has confirmed Chelsea's target is to finish in this season's Premier League top four.

Chelsea are currently in sixth position and one point behind Manchester City who occupy fourth place. However, England are on course to receive a further spot, which would total to five, for the Champions League, which sees the Blues currently level on points with Bournemouth.

Maresca's side are well on track for their bid to return to the Champions League, a competition they have not been involved in since the 2022/23 season.

They have spent the majority of the campaign in or around the top four places and Chelsea are keen to ensure they achieve their aims of returning to Europe's elite club competition. The Blues are currently playing in the Conference League this season, which they are expected to eventually win.

However, Maresca came under scrutiny earlier this month when he tried to relieve the pressure from his squad's shoulders after admitting the Chelsea hierarchy told him the requirement was not to finish in the top four this season.

He told Sky Sports: "The plan with the club was, the schedule that you try to do at the beginning of the season or when you meet the club for the first time, it was second season go for top four. Then after the second season try to compete for a title. This is the reason why I said many times that we are ahead of my expectations."

Maresca's words came under the spotlight, especially after Chelsea's FA Cup exit which prompted the Italian to try to find the positives regarding their Conference League and Premier League positions.

Ahead of facing Aston Villa on Saturday evening at Villa Park, Maresca, who is hoping to end a run of consecutive defeats, explained Chelsea's target is to finish in the Champions League places as he eyes bringing the club back to their former glory days of competing for titles in England and Europe.

"I think we spent almost the whole season in the top four," said Maresca. "Now we have just 13 games to go, so for sure now, the target for us now is to try and finish in the top four - to finish in the best way. We are going to try to do our best to achieve that, knowing that the difficult moment we have now is probably one of the reasons why, and the most important reason why, is because of the injury situation; we have five or six players, significant players, that are out."

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He added: "I've always been clear since day one: I'm not here to - and I've said this already a few times - I'm not here to survive, I'm here to win games, I'm here to bring this club to fight for titles. I've said this already many times but the problem is, when you win games, you look humble and when you don't win games, you look like you lack ambition.

"Since day one, I joined this club and my intention was to win games, win titles and to bring this club where this club deserves to be. I've said this since day one. If you review all of my press conferences, I always say the same. The problem is when you win, you look humble and when you don't win, you look like you lack ambition.

"I'm ambitious, the club is ambitious. We have the same manager, same players, same owners and same sporting directors from two months ago when we were second in the league. Nothing has changed. The only thing that has changed is we are dealing with many injuries and this has affected a little bit the level of the team."