Enzo Maresca believes the gap between Arsenal and Chelsea remains “quite big” due to the fact Mikel Arteta is five years into his project at Emirates Stadium.
The two sides will meet in the Premier League this weekend and, if Chelsea win, they will close the gap on Arsenal to just three points.
Maresca, however, is of the opinion that the Gunners are much further along in their project under Arteta.
The Chelsea boss believes Arsenal have benefitted from Arteta being in the job for over five years, during which time he has transformed them into serial title contenders.
“It is quite big,” said Maresca, when asked about the gap between Arsenal and Chelsea. “The reason why is because they are working with the same manager for five years.
“The difference is quite important. With the same players, they already played for some important games.
“But our target, our duty is to close that gap between us and them. In this moment, the table just says the difference between us and them it’s six points, if I am not wrong.
“So, we are quite close, but we still have 10 games to go. In this moment we have two targets, that is finish top four or five for Champions League [qualification] and the other one is the Conference League.
“This club used to play finals and fight for titles. So if we are able to give to the fans and to the club this chance to fight for a title, I think it is important for us.”
After a shaky February, Chelsea have turned a corner and head into Sunday’s game at Emirates Stadium looking to make it five wins on the spin in all competitions.
The Blues are currently fourth in the Premier League table and on course to achieve their aim of qualifying for the Champions League.
The gap to Arsenal in second is only six points, and that could be halved on Sunday, but Maresca is not getting ahead of himself.
“They can be nine [clear of us]! At the moment, they are six,” said Maresca. “We are not focused if [the gap] can be three or nine or six.
“We are just focused on how we can do our game, how we can try to beat them. Then, hopefully, we can do that and we can be closer [to them].
“It (second place) could be a target, for sure. It’s our duty to do our best. But, at the same time, I think the target for us is Sunday’s game and then game after game how we can go close.”
