Double success gives Chelsea a springboard to rejoin the elite

Conference League glory and Champions League qualification show Enzo Maresca has Blues on the right path.

- By Malik Ouzia

As Chelsea's players celebrated their Conference League triumph and the travelling fans sang with restored accuracy about having "won it all", the message from Enzo Maresca was clear: this is just the start. “To build a winning mentality, you need to win games and competitions,” said Maresca, whose debut season has now yielded major silverware to go with a Champions League return. “The trophy we won tonight is going to make us better, for sure.”

And, of course, it will have to. Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital did not buy Chelsea to win the Conference League, nor is it why they hired Maresca. Certainly, none of the bright young things recruited at enormous expense over the last three years were bought with this as their forecast ceiling, nor did they each sign unprecedented long-term contracts thinking this would be as good as it got.

But it is where Chelsea are right now and, having already ensured it is not where they will be next season, this was a night to be enjoyed for what it was. No silverware comes easy, whatever their run in this competition and a 4-1 final scoreline — harsh on Real Betis — might suggest.

Maybe it was the message sent by Maresca leaving his captain Reece James on the bench for a major European final. Maybe it was the fact that in securing a top-four finish, the primary business of the season had already been done. Or maybe it was because, of the hundred or so fans queuing to have their photo taken with the trophy in the early afternoon, all but a handful were dressed in white and green. But everywhere you looked in Wroclaw there were signs that this was a markedly bigger game for Betis than for Chelsea. Nowhere was it more blatant than in the opening 45 minutes, when Betis led 1-0. But Chelsea have shown little regard for fairytales in the past week, dispatching Nottingham Forest when most neutrals wanted them reach the Champions League instead.