Well, if Pochettino is given time this season, of course we hope to see Chelsea in the top 4 or competing hard with Manchester City and Arsenal and that could happen.
But unfortunately management fired Pochettino which makes us doubt their progress this season. The reason I hesitate is because the players have to adapt again to the new style of play from their new coach, even though last season their game was very good.
Even though that's just my assumption, I hope that Chelsea can return to the top spot and play again in the Champions League. Let's wait and see whether Enzo Maresca will succeed in bringing significant changes to the team's progress or whether he will be fired again.
Enzo Maresca himself is trying to create such good changes at Chelsea and his fans have also begun to hope that what Enzo Maresca will do can provide much better results for Chelsea even though I myself still doubt what Enzo Maresca will achieve at Chelsea because the competition in the Premier League always looks fiercer and quite high. However, it is also very important for any party to give time to the new Chelsea coach because that has been the decision of Chelsea itself after firing Pochettino at the end of last season due to the less than impressive performance of the Chelsea team itself.
Whatever Enzo Maresca is doing at Chelsea now is definitely not the right thing to do based on the results from their preseason outing. If they put up this performance in their first match against Man City, then they will be giving Man City a chance to sit at the top of the league from the very beginning of the season and that is what I don't really like because it will discourage a lot of teams and make the entire season boring and less competitive like some leagues that people easily know the winner of the title from the first matches. I expect fierce competition this season just like we had last season so that any sides that eventually win the league will know they put a lot of efforts to get it.
I agree with you to an extent, in as much as pre-season are not considered as serious games,Chelsea is not putting up good play as a team, with what I have observed and seen so far, Chelsea will not get a good result in their encounter with Manchester city, for now I reserve some comments untill the season starts fully before I can say anything but reacting to what you said, let it be that what Enzo Maresca is doing with his team is a preseason joke if not, it will be very difficult for Chelsea the pride of London this coming season, let me also state it categorically that even though Manchester City win Chelsea in their first match of the season it doesn't mean that they won't lose any match again neither is it a trophy win for them, Manchester City is very good team know doubt, are you trying to say that Manchester city defeating chelasea will determine the fate of other football teams in the English premiership in the new season, personally I feel that anyone can be at the top of league table in the beginning of the season but that doesnt mean that they have won the trophy, for the past few seasons, Arsenal has always been at the top but at the end they won't still lift the trophy, there are more football tasty teams that are coming from relegation and i believe some of them wont like going back to where they are coming from, so with my observation I see a highly competitive season ahead in the English premiership.