Chelsea 1 Inter Milan 1 – Is this Maresca's plan for City? What now ...

It has been a summer of incomings at Chelsea and this pre-season friendly against Inter Milan saw another new signing unveiled.

With champions Manchester City first up for Enzo Maresca in their Premier League opener next Sunday, this was their last chance to find a balance.

Maresca has many options and the half-time unveiling of Pedro Neto, signed from Wolves, only emphasised the point. But, in this 1-1 draw, the head coach seemed to find the defence and attacking setups he was looking for, albeit in different halves of the match.

Here, Liam Twomey breaks down what we learnt from Stamford Bridge.

After suggesting Chelsea’s real pre-season preparations would only resume when they returned from their tour of the United States, Maresca knew he would need to get more serious with his team selection on his introduction to the Stamford Bridge crowd against Inter.

While the minutes were still shared around more widely than they will be for Premier League games, a clearer sense emerged of what Maresca’s favoured line-up may be when City visit Stamford Bridge to kick off Chelsea’s domestic campaign next Sunday.

In the first half, Chelsea’s starting back four of Malo Gusto, Wesley Fofana, Levi Colwill and Marc Cucurella had the look of a more coherent Premier League back four and largely performed like it, with Gusto inverting into midfield in possession and Colwill and Fofana more connected than any of the other centre-back combinations seen in the U.S.

Behind them, Robert Sanchez could do nothing about Marcus Thuram’s brilliant finish and his distribution was calm and solid — though it will take more displays like this one for Stamford Bridge to feel entirely comfortable watching him with the ball at his feet.

With his second-half substitutions, Maresca then arrived at something closer to what looks like Chelsea’s best midfield and attacking alignment, with Christopher Nkunku the link man ahead of Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez, Cole Palmer operating from the right flank and Nicolas Jackson, introduced just before the hour mark to big cheers, leading the line.

So close to a stunning equaliser from Nkunku! pic.twitter.com/iKD6T24Vfl

— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) August 11, 2024

The only big question mark is on the left with Mykhailo Mudryk, who continues to look largely lost in this team. Chelsea are not convinced by Raheem Sterling either, which is why they made a sizeable investment in Neto, presented to Stamford Bridge at half-time.

Neto will likely seize that spot sooner rather than later, but the rest of Chelsea’s line-up is beginning to take shape.

He may still have access to the first-team building at Cobham, but Ben Chilwell is unlikely to be feeling much better about his Chelsea future than Trevoh Chalobah.

Maresca’s description of the England international’s fit within his system as “delicate” has proved an understatement. There is simply no place for a conventional attacking left-back in the way this team is structured; Cucurella and his second-half replacement Renato Veiga barely ever ventured into the final third against Inter.

Chilwell has been rendered tactically obsolete by Chelsea’s summer coaching change. So little has he featured in pre-season that it is unclear whether he has even retained his status as the club’s vice-captain; you need to actually make it onto the pitch to wear the armband and Fernandez appears to be next in Maresca’s list of on-field leaders after Reece James.

These will be hugely worrying times for Chilwell, who has already lost significant chunks of time to injury in the past three years and missed out on the England squad for Euro 2024. His consolation throughout that time has been that whenever he does manage to get and stay fit, he has always been regarded as a key player at Stamford Bridge.

That is emphatically no longer the case and it will be no major shock if he is somewhere other than Chelsea by the end of the summer transfer window.

Maresca and Neto were not the only new Chelsea faces keen to impress the Stamford Bridge crowd. Marc Guiu, a prominent figure in the pre-season tour due largely to a dearth of No 9 alternatives, led the attacking line and the high press like a man possessed in the west London summer heat for all of his 56 minutes on the pitch.

Yann Sommer came perilously close to being harried into embarrassing errors by Guiu on several occasions in the first half and the home crowd immediately warmed to the 18-year-old’s relentless enthusiasm and bustling physicality.

It helped that the Barcelona product also brought out two of the Inter goalkeeper’s better saves in the opening 45 minutes, though both of his efforts were slightly scuffed.

Guiu could leave Chelsea on loan in this window with the imminent arrival of Samu Omorodion from Atletico Madrid, and very likely will do so if Victor Osimhen follows him to Stamford Bridge. It is unclear whether he is actually good enough to meaningfully help in Premier League games, but he has the athleticism and application to at least compete at this level.

Of the other summer signings, it was Renato Veiga (below) who made the most notable impression, crunching into one hard but fair tackle by the left touchline in the second half which brought a roar from the Shed End — a roar he amplified by getting to his feet and pumping his arms to work the crowd.

Pre-season is the time for useful distractions. Time will tell if Guiu and Veiga can be any more than that, but first impressions are important and theirs were positive.

Sunday, August 18: Manchester City (H), Premier League, 4.30pm BST, 11.30am ET

(Top photo: Eddie Keogh/Getty Images)

Liam is a Staff Writer for The Athletic, covering Chelsea. He previously worked for Goal covering the Premier League before becoming the Chelsea correspondent for ESPN in 2015, witnessing the unravelling of Jose Mourinho, the rise and fall of Antonio Conte, the brilliance of Eden Hazard and the madness of Diego Costa. He has also contributed to The Independent and ITV Sport. Follow Liam on Twitter @liam_twomey