It was a glorious, if late, end to the 2024/25 campaign for the Blues. We clinched a fourth-place finish in the Premier League to qualify for the Champions League and lifted the first silverware of Maresca’s reign by winning the Conference League.

We then delayed the conclusion of our campaign by departing for the USA to compete in the Club World Cup, which resulted in further glory as we became the first team to lift that trophy by beating Paris Saint-Germain in the final in New Jersey on 13 July.

Those triumphs have undoubtedly built confidence within the squad, but also resulted in the knock-on effect of Maresca and his players not getting back to work at Cobham for pre-season until the start of this week.

That leaves our head coach looking to balance the need to recover from exertions in the USA while preparing for next week’s opening round of Premier League fixtures.

‘I can see that the mood is different, or much better,’ Maresca said when discussing the atmosphere at Cobham in the first week of pre-season.

‘When you finish the season the way we finished – getting the top five, winning the Conference League and then the Club World Cup – I think it is going to give the players more energy, a boost.

‘But we need to see how we manage this kind of situation that is new for everyone. The focus was just to allow them to recover because we played 64 games, and they didn’t stop playing for more than a year in a row.

‘That is something that has never happened before, so the main focus was just to allow the players to recover. Then they came back here and now we try to do our best. We will see game by game.’

With 2025 being the first-ever expanded summer Club World Cup, Maresca admits he and his team are in uncharted territory when it comes to resetting for the start of the domestic season in August.

The contrast is clear from the fact that our first Premier League opponents, Crystal Palace, began their pre-season preparations for 2025/26 the day after our 2024/25 campaign came to a close on the other side of the Atlantic.

Things may become clearer in the next few days, as we return to the pitch for the VisitMalta Weekender at Stamford Bridge. That begins this evening against Bayer Leverkusen, before we face AC Milan on Sunday, when Maresca will be keeping a keen eye on his players in an attempt to pick up right where we left off, despite our accelerated pre-season schedule.

‘We need to be ready in any case, so it’s important to start again in the way we finished last season, knowing that it was a strange end,’ continued the Italian.

‘It’s something that has happened for the first time, and we need to see how we adapt, but for sure we need to be ready.

‘I’m curious because Palace started the day after we finished in the USA. We had three weeks off, started four days ago, and we have two friendly games. Then we will go into the Premier League.

‘So, we will see game by game, day by day, how we are.’

The first clues as to the answer to that question will be revealed this evening at Stamford Bridge, when Chelsea take on Bayer Leverkusen in the first game of the VisitMalta Weekender. You can be there in person to see for yourself, with the last remaining tickets still available via the button below.