Chelsea WILL give Liverpool guard of honour as Enzo Maresca sends warning to champions

Enzo Maresca confirmed will afford champions a guard of honour tomorrow - and warned they are closing the gap.

For half the season, Maresca’s side were the Kop’s closest challengers at the top until ruinous defeats against and Ipswich at threw the Blues off-course. Chelsea’s head coach admitted he wants his players to absorb the meaning of their gesture and think: “One day I would like to be there.”

Maresca’s squad crawled home at dawn on Thursday night, which all but booked their passage to the Europa Conference League final against Real Betis or Fiorentina on May 28.

Back home, ’s kept Chelsea above the dotted line in the race for a top-five finish and riches next season. But first they must navigate ’s visit to Stamford Bridge - and clap ’s kings on to the pitch.

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Maresca said: “It's tradition. We have to do that, and we are going to do that. They won the Premier League, so they deserve it. In terms of the gap between us and Liverpool, it is there, you can see this clearly. My feeling is we are [moving] in the right direction and hopefully this gap can be smaller and smaller.

“The difference is they have been consistent compared to us. For part of the season we were very good, and then we lost some games. This has probably been the main reason why the gap is there - also in terms of experienced players who know how to win games and these kinds of things, I think they have something more compared to us.

“For sure, if you want to close the gap with these kind of clubs then you have to do things (like adding experience). Our team next season will be better in terms of experience because this season has been one more year together. There are ones who are growing, like Levi [Colwill] for instance. He is growing a lot in terms of leadership. Next year he will be better and better. Hopefully the ones that we have, they can grow and help us in terms of experience.

"I don't think we need to give a guard of honour to understand how good it is to win the Premier League - we know that it's something very nice. But for sure when you are standing there, probably in their minds our players are thinking, 'I would like one day to be there.’

“It's always nice to play this kind of game, but I don't think Liverpool’s approach is going to be different or relaxed.”

Barring unprecedented complacency, Chelsea will be heading to Wroclaw in Poland for their sixth European final in 17 years - and the chance to complete a full set of UEFA trophies after winning the Champions League, and now-defunct Cup Winners Cup twice each, plus the Super Cup.

Maresca hopes they have learned from last month’s home defeat by Legia Warsaw after a convincing 3-0 win in the first leg, saying: “You have to go through this moment to learn. Now we can say, 'OK guys, it's already happened. It's not going to happen again.' Otherwise that means there's a problem. We need that kind of experience to improve.”

One bonus from the cakewalk in Sweden was substitute Reggie Walsh becoming Chelsea’s youngest player to make his debut since 1967 at 16 years 193 days. Maresca said: “They just said to me that we gave eight debuts this season from the academy. I think it's good.

“I just told him to be happy and play the way he's training with us every day. He's so good because he makes everything easy, but he’s very young and he needs to continue to work.”

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