The Blues sit third in the table after an impressive 3-0 win against Aston Villa on Sunday (01.12.24) but the coach thinks his team has work to do before they can be compared to Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester City.

Maresca said: "We are not ready to compete with Liverpool, Arsenal and (Manchester) City, for many reasons.

"Just because we won today I’m not going to change my idea. We’re not ready for that. But the good thing is we are improving and hopefully very soon we can be there."

The Italian manager thinks Chelsea need to "live moments" such as playing in cup finals before they can be considered true contenders.

Maresca said: "We need to improve many things, we can attack better, defend better.

"You have to live moments to get better. This kind of players, some of them in their experience have played only one final, the Carabao Cup final (in February).

"It’s been the most important game they’ve played. You need to live moments to get better when we start to get these moments, we’ll get better and we can compete.

"Arsenal, Liverpool, (Manchester) City players have all lived finals and competed for titles. We’re going to be there soon but it’s the reason we are still far and not ready to compete."

However, Maresca thinks the win over Villa is further evidence that his side are moving in the "right direction".

He said: "It was a very good performance on and off the ball, I think we competed quite well. We are doing that since we started, sometimes better and sometimes worse. I said many times, I think we are in the right direction."