{"id":19097,"date":"2026-01-02T16:51:24","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T16:51:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/02\/chelsea-caretaker-manager-says-players-are-really-focused-on-man-city-after-marescas-departure\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T16:51:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T16:51:24","slug":"chelsea-caretaker-manager-says-players-are-really-focused-on-man-city-after-marescas-departure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/02\/chelsea-caretaker-manager-says-players-are-really-focused-on-man-city-after-marescas-departure\/","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea caretaker manager says players are &#8216;really focused&#8217; on Man City after Maresca&#8217;s departure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>LONDON (AP) &#8211; Callum MacFarlane says his 24 hours at Chelsea have been a &#8220;whirlwind&#8221; since he was promoted from under-21 manager to caretaker manager and given the task of facing Josep Guardiola and Manchester City on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>The English player will be managed by Chelsea. <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\">Successor to Enzo Maresca<\/span>. McFarlane led team training on Friday after security passes were upgraded to allow him access to the first team building.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As you can imagine, it&#8217;s been a hectic 24 hours, but it&#8217;s also been a really fun and exciting time,&#8221; MacFarlane said.<\/p>\n<p>The London club announced on Thursday that Maresca had resigned as manager following reports that his relationship with the team had deteriorated.<\/p>\n<p>Liam Rosenior, the coach of French team Strasbourg, which is part of the same ownership group as Chelsea, is reported to be the leading candidate for the job.<\/p>\n<p>But on Sunday, MacFarlane led the Blues at the Etihad Stadium. <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\">Over 1000 games<\/span> in charge.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The energy and enthusiasm in training today was exceptional,&#8221; said MacFarlane, who worked in City&#8217;s academy during the 2020-21 season before moving to Southampton and then Chelsea. &#8220;They seem really focused, really motivated and have a hungry spirit. They know they have a big game on Sunday, so they&#8217;re going to have to do their best.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Chelsea will start the second half of the Premier League in fifth place. The Blues are three points behind fourth-placed Liverpool, but just three points behind 11th-placed Fulham.<\/p>\n<p>The match at City will be Chelsea&#8217;s first of nine games in all competitions this month.<\/p>\n<p>Chelsea are looking for their fifth full-time manager since the end of the war. <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\">takeover of the club<\/span> It was established in May 2022 by American investors led by Todd Boley.<\/p>\n<p>Maresca was in charge for 18 months and won the championship. <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\">conference league<\/span> and <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\">club world cup<\/span> First season at Chelsea.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>AP Soccer: <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\">https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/chelsea-manager-coach-guardiola-mancity-706cd19c3f8e4d40e0a9ffaff20d6eba\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LONDON (AP) &#8211; Callum MacFarlane says his 24 hours at Chelsea have been a &#8220;whirlwind&#8221; since he was promoted from under-21 manager to caretaker manager and given the task of facing Josep Guardiola and Manchester City on Sunday. The English player will be managed by Chelsea. Successor to Enzo Maresca. McFarlane led team training on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19097","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Chelsea caretaker manager says players are &#039;really focused&#039; on Man City after Maresca&#039;s departure - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/02\/chelsea-caretaker-manager-says-players-are-really-focused-on-man-city-after-marescas-departure\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chelsea caretaker manager says players are &#039;really focused&#039; on Man City after Maresca&#039;s departure - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"LONDON (AP) &#8211; Callum MacFarlane says his 24 hours at Chelsea have been a &#8220;whirlwind&#8221; since he was promoted from under-21 manager to caretaker manager and given the task of facing Josep Guardiola and Manchester City on Sunday. The English player will be managed by Chelsea. Successor to Enzo Maresca. 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