Enzo Maresca hopes Chelsea will continue to impress at Stamford Bridge by making it seven home wins in succession on Sunday, but the Blues head coach is also eager to earn more points on the road during the Premier League run-in.
We haven’t dropped a single league point at the Bridge since a 2-2 draw with Bournemouth on 14 January.
In that period, we have defeated Wolverhampton Wanderers, West Ham United, Southampton, Leicester City, and Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League, as well as overcoming Copenhagen in the UEFA Conference League.
Victories away from home – in the league at least – haven’t been so easy to come by, which was evident when we were unable to turn our dominance into a winning goal at Brentford last Sunday.
‘Sometimes you win games when the performance is not top and sometimes you don’t win games in the other way,’ reflected Maresca.
‘Overall, we started the season winning games away, and now we struggle a little bit to win games away. Hopefully, in the seven games to go, we can continue to win the games at home and win the games away.
‘We have seven games to go, but we’ve been saying with 12, 13, 14 games to go that we need to keep winning.
'In the last game against Brentford, we did enough to win the game. Unfortunately, we didn’t score, but we shot more than 20 times, so it’s a matter of taking the chances.
‘It’s important we continue to create and at the end we will see [where we are in the table].’
The first of those seven remaining Premier League fixtures arrives this Sunday, as we host Ipswich Town at the Bridge.
Maresca won’t be taking anything for granted against the Tractor Boys, though, having had to settle for one point in matches against Kieran McKenna’s side while leading Leicester City to the Championship, and suffering a 2-0 defeat in Chelsea’s reverse fixture at Portman Road in December.
‘On that day, they had more desire than us to get the three points,' our head coach recalled. 'I still remember the game, and even if we had many chances to score, they defended really well.
‘They are a good team, I know that from last year. They are a very good team, with a good manager. The Premier League is for sure different, but they are doing well.
‘Kieran has been doing a fantastic job for three years. Against Leicester last year, we were winning both games home and away, but in added time they scored goals to draw.
‘From League One, the Championship and the Premier League, they are there. So congratulations to them and Kieran, because they are doing a fantastic job. Hopefully, we can do our best to win the game.’