Flowers for Maresca as The Treble puts Chelsea on course for better season than Liverpool

 This is a unique treble in more ways than one. Chelsea are the first club in history to win all three European competitions, but they may also be the first club in history to win a treble and have that accomplishment tinged with shame over how they came to be in a position to secure it.

Attained in the space of just six years after Chelsea won the Europa League in 2019 and the Champions League in 2021, it’s an unprecedented achievement which illustrates the club’s struggles since BlueCo took over, and we’re guessing UEFA’s aim when adding the Conference League to their competition catalogue wasn’t for the winners to cruise to a trophy thought to be beneath them. It wasn’t plain sailing in Wroclaw though.

Having seemingly come to realise at long last that Reece James is indeed a right-back and not a central midfielder, despite the Chelsea captain’s brilliant displays against Manchester United and Nottingham Forest to help secure Champions League qualification, Enzo Maresca left him out of the side in favour of Malo Gusto – a decision he very quickly regretted and continued to regret until he made amends at half-time.

Both with and without the ball he was found wanting. Whether by Manuel Pellegrini’s design or simply through the magnetism of his discomfort, everything – and there was a fair amount – was coming down Gusto’s side. And when Abde Ezzalzouli wasn’t skipping past him, the Frenchman was giving the ball away.

His passes were cut out by Betis players three times in the opening half an hour and historically, and contemporarily as it turns out, the very last player you want to be giving the ball to on the edge of your box is Isco.

Recently called up by Spain for the first time in six years after 17 goal contributions in his last 20 La Liga games, the 33-year-old looked every inch the five-time Champions League winner, and played a beautifully disguised pass to Ezzalzouli, who drove his shot expertly into the far corner.

The La Liga side really should have doubled their lead after Ezzalzouli again embarrassed Gusto before Johnny Cardoso’s shot sailed over the bar, while Filip Jorgensen was forced into a decent save to deny Marc Barta. It feels overly simplistic to suggest players representing a club playing in a first ever European final might Want It More than those deemed to be slumming it in a competition two rungs below the showpiece they’ve won twice, but it did feel that way.

Chelsea shouldn’t be here, wouldn’t be if it Manchester United hadn’t beaten Manchester City in the FA Cup final a year ago, lest we forget, and didn’t look as though they were there for most of a first half in which the familiar trope of aimless possession combined with defensive frailty put the treble in doubt. But, Cole Palmer.

Two outstanding assists turned this game on its head to make it 27 goal contributions in this Fallow Season of his. The cross for Enzo Fernandez was put on a dime similar to the one Palmer then turned on before crossing for Nicolas Jackson to score the second.

Chelsea were an entirely different team after the break. And while we’re not about to give Maresca credit for redressing his Gusto/James mistake, he fully deserves his flowers.

Whatever he said to motivate his team at the break worked wonders, his shout to bring Levi Colwill on as the best distributor from the back was inspired and while there will have been plenty of fans baulking at the introduction of Jadon Sancho, it was the Manchester United loanee who secured the trophy with Chelsea’s third before Moises Caicedo was the fitting scorer of the fourth as the Player of the Year and Players’ Player of the Year.

It might just be the best half of football Chelsea have played all season and in the immortal words of DReam: Things Can Only Get Better.

be impressed by what he’s done with (yes, we’re going to say it) such an inexperienced squad.

This was the first team to play a European final without a player over the age of 27 since Red Star Belgrade in 1979. And it’s the age profile that makes this Conference League trophy feel far more important than it would typically be for a club of Chelsea’s size.

A young team with a taste for winning trophies now looks set to be bolstered by the top quality additions that the riches of Champions League qualification and mere entry into the Club World Cup allows. We could be about to see something pretty special from Chelsea, and if not next season, then probably the season after that, and then maybe for the next ten seasons.

But this one’s been really pretty good too – about as good as it could have been. Better than Arsenal’s? Champions League football and a trophy; maybe another one to come. So yes. Better than Liverpool’s? Probably not if we’re talking pure football even though Chelsea could win two trophies to Liverpool’s one. But what’s actually even more important than the actual football? The money.

Chelsea have secured £15.7m for winning the Conference League to add to £47.9m for a fourth-placed finish in the Premier League, while Club World Cup glory would see their prize pot for the season reach £160.7m compared to Liverpool’s £137.3m.

We jest – Liverpool are a way off Chelsea – but while this trophy out of context is far from an earth-shaking moment to strike fear into their Premier League and European rivals, the momentum it threatens to build in a young and very talented squad that will have grown up a lot in the last week, will be enough for them to be at least be seen as dark horses in the short-term before turning into a fancied side for those major gongs in the not-too-distant future.