The Blues headed into the opening match of our 2024 USA Tour at Levi’s Stadium on the back of just two weeks of training under Maresca.

Our new head coach used the match as a chance to give the majority of his squad 45 minutes of game time, while also introducing supporters to his distinctive style of play.

Maresca said: ‘The result is always important but in this moment, the most important thing is to judge the performance, especially after two weeks since we started.

‘I was very happy in the first half and also in the second half. It is a shame that we conceded the two goals but overall, when you think about players like Wes who played 45 minutes after a year out and different situations, [I am pleased].

‘The result for us is always important but in this moment, we have to judge different things so I am very happy with the performance.’

Maresca was able to implement his style of play to great effect at Leicester City on his way to guiding the Foxes to the Championship title.

The Italian likes his teams to dominate possession and uses his right-back as an additional midfielder when they have the ball.

And when asked if Blues fans saw the same system he implemented at Leicester, Maresca replied: ‘Yes, in this moment we are trying to build with three [defenders] and two [in defensive midfield]. First half it was with Reece James inside and in the second half it was with Malo Gusto inside.

‘It doesn’t matter what the level of the opposition is when they sit back with 11 players behind the ball, it is always difficult to find space and solutions. It is not easy.

‘We tried in the first half and we tried in the second half and for sure we did many things where we can improve. But we only started two weeks ago so for me, tonight it was important to start to see the identity of the team and the identity is there.’

Chelsea dominated possession for the majority of the match and took the lead through Christopher Nkunku in the first half.

Goals from Luke Bolton and Jack Marriott saw Wrexham go ahead in the second period before a goal from Lesley Ugochukwu ensured both teams had to settle for a draw.

One of the journalists in the post-match press conference asked Maresca about Wrexham’s goals coming from playing out of the back.

But the head coach highlighted: ‘The first goal was not from playing out of the back. The second goal was, yes, but the first goal was one bouncing ball, we lost the duel and we conceded the first goal.

‘For sure we are going to concede goals during the season trying to build from the back. Hopefully we are not going to concede too many but it is one of the risks that you have trying to build from the back.

‘Absolutely [it is important to keep being brave playing out from the back]. I think you are going to concede goals in different ways so you just need to decide in which way you will concede goals.

‘Teams who build from behind, sometimes they concede but overall I think you are going to score more goals than the ones you concede.’