\n<\/p>\n
He added: “I am quite relaxed. I am sure as we get closer to the game it will become more nerve-wracking. I haven’t worked at this level before but the lads have been brilliant and we will do this together.”<\/p>\n
Maresca’s departure came after a 2-2 draw against Bournemouth on Tuesday, which left the Blues 15 points adrift of leaders Arsenal. <\/p>\n
It means McFarlane’s debut as a manager of a senior team will come against Pep Guardiola, who celebrated managing his 1,000th match as a head coach in November. <\/p>\n
“The team needs to be ready and prepared and our role is giving the players the support they need to go and execute,” he said. <\/p>\n
“I wouldn’t say we have nothing to lose. We have to give a real good account of ourselves.”<\/p>\n
Chelsea travel to Manchester three places and 11 points behind second-placed City. <\/p>\n
Reports following Maresca’s departure suggested the Italian had held talks over succeeding Guardiola, though the former Leicester City boss denied the claims. <\/p>\n
“From my point of view Chelsea have lost an incredible manager and an incredible person,” Guardiola said on Maresca’s departure.<\/p>\n
“It’s a decision from the Chelsea hierarchy so I’ve nothing to say. How lucky I am in the club where I am. My club is extraordinary.”<\/p>\n
Asked about his own future, Guardiola – whose current deal runs until the end of the 2026-27 season – said: “I have one more year.<\/p>\n
“I’ve been here for 10 years and I promise you I will leave one day but I have a contract, I’m happy, I want to fight with my team, the hierarchy respect me – they proved last season when we didn’t win one game in three months.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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He added: “I am quite relaxed. I am sure as we get closer to the game it will become more nerve-wracking. I haven’t worked at this level before but the lads have been brilliant and we will do this together.” Maresca’s departure came after a 2-2 draw against Bournemouth on Tuesday, which left the Blues<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}