Enzo Maresca\u2019s departure from Chelsea in the early hours of 2026 has dominated Premier League discussion, with several high-profile managers offering immediate reaction. The exit followed a rapid deterioration of relations at Stamford Bridge, and Chelsea players took to social media to bid farewell to their former coach.<\/p>\n
Attention has focused on the timing of the decision, with Chelsea due to visit Manchester City in a matter of days. Maresca previously spent time at City working under Pep Guardiola, and Guardiola did not hide his view of the situation. \u201cOnly I can say that Chelsea, I think from my point of view, lose an incredible, incredible manager, incredible person,\u201d Guardiola admitted. \u201cBut it\u2019s a decision from the Chelsea hierarchy so I\u2019ve got nothing to say.\u201d He added that the episode \u201conly confirmed how lucky I am in the club where I am. My club is extraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reports that Maresca might be lined up to succeed Guardiola at Manchester City were raised in press conferences, prompting further questions. Guardiola replied, \u201cNo idea,\u201d Guardiola said. \u201cYou have, I\u2019m pretty sure more information than me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta, who also began his coaching career as a Guardiola understudy, praised Maresca ahead of Arsenal\u2019s match against Bournemouth. \u201cWish him [Maresca] all the best,\u201d Arteta said. \u201cI really like Enzo as a person and as a professional. I think he\u2019s done a terrific job at Chelsea. That\u2019s the decision that has been made and I wish him all the best.\u201d<\/p>\n
The speed of events is underlined by recent results. On Nov. 30, Maresca\u2019s Chelsea salvaged a point against Arsenal despite playing almost an hour with 10 men. Exactly one month later he managed his final game for the club in a 2\u20132 draw with Bournemouth.<\/p>\n
Andoni Iraola, who faced Maresca on the day of that Bournemouth match, said he was taken aback by the news. \u201cIt\u2019s true that the other day I couldn\u2019t talk to him after the game,\u201d Iraola revealed. \u201cWe talked after the game we played here three or four weeks ago and we were talking about the situations, the issues we always have. But I didn\u2019t expect it, no.\u201d<\/p>\n
Recent reports have suggested Strasbourg manager Liam Rosenior as the leading candidate to replace Maresca, and Iraola\u2019s name has also been circulated, though the Spaniard moved to dampen talk of leaving Vitality Stadium for Stamford Bridge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Premier League managers responded after Enzo Maresca’s sudden Chelsea exit in early 2026. Reactions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5656,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,172],"tags":[1089,1087,1307],"class_list":["post-5657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-epl","tag-chelsea-struggles","tag-coaching-change","tag-collapse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}