Chelsea have not been the most stable club ever since the arrival of Todd Boehly and BlueCo in 2022, but the ship is perhaps finally heading in the right direction with Enzo Maresca now at the helm. The Italian secured Champions League football in his debut season with the Blues, while also winning the Europa Conference League.
Adding to that, he then led them to further glory at the 2025 Club World Cup, surprising many to comfortably beat Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain 3-0 in the final. Few would have predicted such a triumph, but Mikel Arteta can count himself among those to have spotted the potential in the Stamford Bridge outfit all along.
Indeed, speaking about Chelsea back in March, the Arsenal boss claimed they were the 'best attacking' team in the Premier League. He was mocked at the time for his comment, but he was clearly onto something.
Arteta Saw the Potential in Chelsea's Attack
"They're the best attacking team in the league"
Arteta was speaking off the back of a 1-0 win for the Gunners at the Emirates. Despite losing, Chelsea put up a good fight, made all the more impressive by the fact that they were missing key injured forwards Nicolas Jackson, Cole Palmer and Noni Madueke – with the latter now close to completing a move to north London.
As quoted by Sky Sports, the Arsenal boss dished out some huge praise for Maresca's side, insisting they were the Premier League's best attacking team 'by a mile'. In full, he said:
"We continue to do a lot of things defensively so well that earn us the right to attack open spaces and but there were so many situations, huge advantages that we just gave away.
"So we have to track back 70m and on that face, we were one of the best teams in the world today because we were unbelievable in the way we've done it. We haven't conceded almost [anything] apart from the strange save from David [Raya].
“In my opinion, they're the best attacking team in the league. By a mile. The stats say it, everything I've seen says it in open play.
“They can open you, they can run in transitions, they have individual quality, any player in the defensive line can threaten inside. They can combine on both sides, their weaker sides, they are missing some big players at the moment.”
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Paul Merson Was Baffled By the Claim
"I'm flabbergasted by that quote"
Many were sceptical of the claim at the time. Former Arsenal star, turned pundit, Paul Merson went as far as to say he was 'flabbergasted' by Arteta's claim. Writing for Sky Sports, he said: "I don't know what I'm missing."
He then added, "I'm flabbergasted by that quote. I honestly don't get that. There will be a lot of Chelsea fans reading that thinking, 'Wow! What is he talking about?"
Arteta, however, clearly understood what the underlying metrics were pointing too as Chelsea would go on to win the Club World Cup, thumping PSG in the final. A brace from Palmer and a third from Joao Pedro sealed a memorable win against what many consider to be the best-attacking team in the world.