Enzo Maresca has backed Levi Colwill to become a future Chelsea captain and revealed that fellow centre-back Tosin Adarabioyo has emerged as the most vocal leader in the Blues’s dressing room. Maresca desperately needs his senior players to step up and arrest an alarming slump that saw Chelsea take only one point from three Premier League games over the festive period.
Defeats against Fulham and Ipswich, along with a goalless draw at Everton, have put an end to what Maresca always insisted was fanciful talk of an unexpected title challenge. Instead, Chelsea have slipped back into a top-four scrap and head to Crystal Palace on Saturday in need of a victory to put their campaign back on track.
Maresca’s squad is the youngest in the top flight and he has previously admitted there are a lack of natural leaders in his squad, with the Italian particularly critical of club captain Reece James. However, the 44-year-old insists several players - including Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez - are growing in stature, though he confirmed that James will continue to wear the armband on his latest return from injury.
Colwill, though, has been a near ever-present for the Blues in the Premier League this season and Maresca says the 21-year-old is also emerging as a senior figure on and off the pitch. “I can see the leader day by day, since we started in pre-season, something that he can improve in terms of leadership,” Maresca said of the Englishman. “He is improving a lot.
