Chelsea sealed their qualification into next season’s UEFA Champions League following a 1-0 win away at top five rivals Nottingham Forest.
Levi Colwill’s second-half goal was enough to seal the three points as the Blues held on for their 11th clean sheet of the season.
Nottingham Forest striker Chris Wood spurned two great chances in added-on time to equalise.
The Blues finished in fourth place after starting the day in fifth, since both Newcastle and Aston Villa lost to Everton and Manchester United respectively.
Chelsea have also broken Leeds United’s record as the youngest Premier League team, with an average age of just 24 years and 36 days across the XI in the 2024/25 season.
Maresca beamed: “Very happy for many reasons. I think the players deserve it. Since day one, they have worked so hard. I think that from January on, we played many good games but from some of you [the press], they said from January we didn’t play many good games. But today we achieved our target today.
“I didn’t have any doubt about the players. The doubt was from outside. We have had ‘they are too young, they are not good enough’. They were saying we were not able to win on this pitch. Unfortunately for them, they are all young. How do we say it in English: ‘F off to all of them’.”
As for Forest, they will have to accept UEFA Conference League football – still a massive achievement for a side absent from Europe since 1996 – rather than Champions League or even Europa League.
Today’s loss means they finished the season with one win from their remaining five matches as they missed out on the top five by two points.
Still, manager Nuno Espirito Santo was fairly upbeat: “We are proud and we go again. You know that one goal can change everything. the improvement of the players is huge, the platform of the club is good. If you ask me, it’s a good season because of the commitment of the players.
“All the circumstances that happened didn’t help, but that is not an excuse. I felt we were there. I’m very proud of the boys and all I can do is thank them.”
Once the Blues took the lead, the approach clearly shifted towards a defensive style that was happy to see out a one-goal lead, which has been unfamiliar this season.
Pedro Neto was brought off in favour of Malo Gusto, as the formation shifted to a block of five defenders ahead of two sitting midfielders.
Maresca said: “The results always count for us in every game. We want to reach results in the way we want to play. The players were top today because we adjusted how to work off the ball today because the environment is not easy.”
Levi Colwill scored the only goal in the 50th minute as he tapped the ball into an empty net after Mats Sels was caught in no-mans land following Neco Williams’ sloppy defensive header.