Six weeks into the City job, the shape of Maresca's football is the one Chelsea knew: a back four that becomes a three and a two, full-backs who play as midfielders, wingers glued to the touchline. Two things are different already. The press has changed from man-for-man everywhere to Guardiola's zonal block with man-for-man jumps. And with Haaland in front of it, the team goes forward sooner.
At both clubs the team lines up in a 4-2-3-1 and turns into a 3-2-5 the moment the ball settles. One full-back steps into midfield next to the pivot, the other tucks in beside the centre-backs, the wingers hold the touchline, and the No 10 plus one midfielder fill the half-spaces. City adds a second gear Chelsea rarely used: when the opponent defends with a back five, both full-backs go and the team becomes 3-1-6, then 2-2-5-1.
The idea behind the 3-2-5 is the same in both cities: six against a back five, three against a front two. Overload the last line so a winger is alone with a full-back, and keep one spare defender against the opponent's strikers so the ball can be recycled without risk. What City has that Chelsea did not is the option to send both full-backs and play 3-1-6, which Squawka picked up in pre-season. Chelsea nearly always kept one full-back home.
The signature role. At Chelsea, Cucurella was a No 6, a box-to-box midfielder and a left-back in the same match (124 touches against Aston Villa). At City the same job goes to Nico O'Reilly, a midfielder by trade, and to Aït-Nouri, while Matheus Nunes on the right can tuck in as a third centre-back or push on when the team goes 2-2-5-1.
Steps inside to join the pivot, or goes one line higher into the pocket while the pivot stays fixed. Expected to finish attacks in the box like a No 8. Same role, same freedom, at both clubs.
Slides in beside the centre-backs to make the three. Chelsea stopped there. City's version can also go: with both full-backs advanced, the two central midfielders become the two behind a front six.
Free between the lines, drifting wide when the full-back inverts so the midfield diamond stretches rather than clogs. Palmer ranked second in the league for through balls in this role. Cherki started the derby there.
Touchline, always. The whole shape exists to leave them 1v1. Semenyo gave four assists in three pre-season matches from that isolation; Doku is described as the perfect Maresca winger.
The mechanism is unchanged. Full-back inside, winger on the chalk, striker pinning the near centre-back. The opponent's full-back has to step out to stop the cross, and the half-space between him and his centre-back opens. What changes is who runs into it. At Chelsea, Jackson or João Pedro dropped to pull a centre-back and the gap was filled by a third-man run. At City, Haaland stays high and pins, and the runner is Cherki, the inverted full-back or the far winger.
This is the one place where the personnel changes the football rather than the other way round. Chelsea's chance creation depended on the striker's dropping movement to unlock the half-space; the analysis of his City side notes Haaland "is not used to these actions". Maresca has not asked him to learn them. The pinning does the same job, and the finishing is the upgrade: Chelsea scored 96 from 102 expected goals over his 18 months, City scored 115 from 104 last season.
Chelsea pressed man-for-man. Each player followed his opponent wherever he went, a full-back dropping to the corner flag took a Chelsea winger with him, and behind the press Maresca accepted 3v3 or 4v4. City does not do that. In settled phases City sits in the 4-2-4 zonal high block Guardiola left behind, and turns man-for-man only on a wide trigger: the winger jumps onto the centre-back, the two front players screen the pivot, the ball-side full-back jumps onto his full-back, and the defence shuffles across. The free man is left on the far side, where the pass is hardest.
Premier League, 1 July 2024 to 30 December 2025 for the two full seasons. Chelsea were also second in the league for challenge intensity in Maresca's first autumn while only twelfth for PPDA: the press was about winning the ball back immediately, not about sustained height.
Chelsea pressed goal kicks with the front four and men behind attached. City presses restarts passively: the front four block the middle, the opponent is invited to clip to a full-back or go long into an underloaded front line, and only behind the front four is it man-oriented.
Both versions counter-press with the four nearest players for a few seconds, then drop into shape if the ball is not won. Rúben Dias after the derby: the details of how City press and defend "are Enzo's idea".
Chelsea built from restarts with Sánchez stepping out as an auxiliary centre-back, a centre-back sliding wide and the pivot dropping between the two centre-backs to drag a striker. City starts differently: the centre-backs split either side of Donnarumma, the double pivot stays deep, the full-backs push high, and the front four stay high. The opponent then chooses between letting City build short or leaving a 4v4 at the top of the pitch.
The surprise in Chelsea's numbers is how much of their damage came on the break. For a side averaging 57.5% possession they were second in the league for fast-break shots and for direct attacks, and the Club World Cup final against PSG, absorbed and then hit at 3-0, was that Chelsea. Maresca arrives at a City that had itself turned more direct in Guardiola's last season, and he has said the plan is to be direct sooner once territory is won.
Chelsea already passed forward more often than Guardiola's City. Expect Maresca's City to sit between the two: the same careful first phase, then earlier balls into Haaland and the wingers.
Chelsea's problems in Maresca's last autumn were not in the drawing. The system created chances to the end (3-0 against Barcelona in November, a 1-1 with ten men against Arsenal). The leaks were execution: a back four that never settled, indiscipline, mistakes, and set pieces.
Set-piece defending was the most repeated criticism: near-post marking on corners, and goals conceded from throw-ins against Bournemouth, Sunderland and Brentford. Nothing in City's first five matches says whether that has been fixed, because nobody has scored against them from a set piece yet. It is the first thing to check when they concede.
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