[Chelsea](https://chelseanews.com/) have one of the world’s elite defensive midfielders in Moises Caicedo, who has somehow upped his game to another level in the 2025/26 campaign as a legitimate darkhorse Ballon d’Or candidate.
Recently, Sky Sports analyst Jamie Carragher doubled down on his comments that Caicedo is behind Arsenal star defensive midfielder Declan Rice in terms of quality, and while he caged that by praising the Ecuadorian star and stating that there’s no shame in being behind Rice, Chelsea fans certainly did not take kindly to Caicedo being snubbed for a rival he is outplaying this season.
So Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca decided to invoke that with a subtle dig directed right back at Declan, surmising that Caicedo is alongside Manchester City star as two of the best defensive midfielders in the world, leaving Rice out of the equation entirely:
“Moises Caicedo is top. Caicedo and Rodri are the two best defensive midfielders in the world in my view”.
Maresca knows exactly what he is doing here, and he is Chelsea through and through. It’s one thing to gas up your own guy and put him next to the name of a Ballon d’Or winner, but Maresca definitely deliberately took Rice out of it to take that shot at Arsenal in the process and turn over Carragher’s narrative.
Joe Soriano is the editor of _The Trivela Effect_ and a FanSided Hall of Famer who has covered world football since 2010. He’s led top digital communities like _The Real Champs_ (Real Madrid) and has run sites covering Tottenham, Liverpool, Juventus, and Schalke. He also helped manage _NFL Spin Zone_ and _Daily DDT,_ covering the NFL and pro wrestling.