Even by Chelsea’s standards, this is extraordinary. On December 12, Enzo Maresca was named Barclays Manager of the Month for November. Three weeks later, he is gone.

The speed of Maresca’s departure at Stamford Bridge is pretty shocking. It was only in late November that Maresca engineered one of the most impressive wins of his tenure — a 3-0 victory over Barcelona in the Champions League. Five days later and Chelsea sent out a statement that they might be title contenders by securing a 1-1 draw with Arsenal, despite being down to 10 men for nearly an hour due to Moises Caicedo’s first-half red card. They were third in the Premier League, just six points behind their London rivals. Now they are a further nine points off the league leaders and making another change in the dugout.

A detailed look at where it all went wrong will naturally soon follow on The Athletic, but regardless of the why, this is a situation that was not in Chelsea’s plans and could have major ramifications for their season. This month alone, they have nine games in all four competitions, and confidence is already low after a run of two wins from their previous nine fixtures.

Chelsea had always intended to review how the club was progressing, including Maresca’s performance, at the end of the season, his second in charge. This was still the case earlier this week. For the Italian to go with so much left to play for emphasises the extent to which things have broken down. There were another three and a half years left on his contract, plus an option for it to be extended by a further 12 months.

From the moment he revealed out of the blue that he had just experienced the worst 48 hours of his Chelsea career following a 2-0 win over Everton on December 13, it was abundantly clear that all was not well at Stamford Bridge. The Athletic then broke the story that he was on Manchester City’s wishlist should Pep Guardiola depart at the end of the season. Not even Maresca’s insistence to fans that he would definitely still be at the helm for 2026-27 could ease the scrutiny.

Maresca greets Chelsea fans before December’s match against Aston Villa (Luke Walker/Getty Images)

Since the Todd Boehly-Clearlake consortium bought the club in late May 2022, they have had five head coaches. The owners inherited Thomas Tuchel, but he was gone within four months. Graham Potter lasted seven months, interim Frank Lampard 11 matches, and Mauricio Pochettino one season. Maresca has stayed the longest, with him lasting over a year and a half and 92 games. He won the first two trophies of the post-Roman Abramovich era, the UEFA Conference League and FIFA Club World Cup in 2025, plus got them back into the Champions League after a two-year absence. Now Chelsea must turn to someone else.

Of course, it has to be regarded as far from ideal. Maresca’s replacement will inevitably have some different ideas and little time to implement them. The club are already guaranteed two games every week from now until February 10, limiting any new coach’s time on the training ground. However, the plan is to employ a coach that will fit with the system. The style of play will not change, nor will the structure above him.