Chelsea will dominate English football for the next five to 10 years

Enzo Maresca believes Chelsea will be the team to dominate English football in the next five to 10 years.

Chelsea head to Southampton tomorrow night in third place in the Premier League, level with Arsenal but nine points adrift of runaway leaders Liverpool.

Maresca, who joined the Blues in the summer from Leicester, believes it is too early in their development for Chelsea to sustain a title challenge between now and May, but says the squad's composition means they will become the team which would beat him for the next decade.

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He said: “I said, being in the title race is a nice pressure for me and the players. It's not the kind of pressure you don't like. That's the kind of pressure you like because you're in the title race.

“But that's not our case (this season). We hope to be there soon.”

He added: “The good thing is I still think about what I said to the owners and the sporting director the first time I met them.

“Because of the age and because of how good the squad is, for me, Chelsea – in the next five to 10 years – will be one of the teams or the team that will dominate English football.

“This is what I told the club the first time I met them, no matter who the manager is going to be.

“They didn't ask me about any goals; the only thing they asked of me was to try to be, in the following years, something important. I think we're (going) in the right direction.”

We are ahead of expectations – Maresca

Maresca inherited disarray at Stamford Bridge with a bloated squad and off-field issues surrounding the club's ownership. The Italian has worked wonders for Chelsea ahead of schedule and has impressed both domestically and in European competition.

“In terms of expectations, we are ahead of my expectations, in the way we play and, certainly, in terms of results,” he said.

“We started four or five months ago; it's a very, very, very, very early, short time together. But the best feeling I have is that there are a lot of things we can do better and (we're) going in the right direction.”

Southampton will be no pushovers

On paper, a trip to bottom side Southampton should be a routine task, but Maresca described the game as Chelsea's “toughest season so far”.

He said: “We have to be ready otherwise it will be a bad day for us and the reason is because if you analyze the results they are there but in terms of performance they won against Liverpool, they lost 1-0 against (Manchester ) City, drew in the last game against Brighton.

“The way they played from last year – when I was in the championship – I know them quite well. They are very brave and it is very clear what they want; they want to keep the ball and we want the same.

“It's going to be a tough, tough game.”

No Fofana at St Mary's

Centre-back Wesley Fofana will miss the trip to the south coast after limping off during Sunday's win over Aston Villa.

Maresca could not give any more news, but admitted that the Frenchman will be gone for some time.

“Right now we don't have any update, until two days ago, so we have to wait a bit and hopefully we will get more news in the coming days,” he said.

“But for sure, he will be out for the next few weeks.

“Benoit (Badiashile) could be one of the solutions, but we have different players who can play there.

“For sure, it's a big loss because Wes played fantastic every game, but we have to accept that and find a solution.”