Chelsea is not able to compete for EPL title now, but they are building a young squad that already showing its good competitiveness and improvement in two latest seasons. Chelsea as a rich club with no big financial trouble in buying star players, can build up a young competitive squad, then if they see need of having one or two world class star players to win titles, I believe they will not hesitate in spending big budget.
Chelsea can be very different in a next season or two seasons later, and they will compete strongly for EPL title very soon.
It is very true what you say, in fact for more than 4 seasons Chelsea have been in that situation of stopping the great roll they have had of not being Able to do things well, nor qualify for a high level competition, now they can fight for a place in the UCL, and this is already a great gain, taking advantage of City's bad moment, that Liverpool and Arsenal are fighting to win the PL, but it would be a good victory for Chelsea to be in the UCL and be protagonists, that is what I would most like this team to demonstrate, that they go back to being like before.
I personally also admit that Chelsea has been better since last season, but the problem is about the comparison between Pochettino and Enzo Maresca. Last season, at least Pochettino managed to make Chelsea better and finish in sixth place after previously Chelsea was very destroyed with the previous coach too. But, Pochettino managed to improve Chelsea but after all, Pochettino was also fired and currently Chelsea is in a decline in performance.
Thus, of course there is still a lot of difficult work for Enzo Maresca, because to have a consistent team in the Premier League is not easy at all. Although it is possible, Chelsea has good progress with its young squad, but if Chelsea at the end of this season fails to finish in the top six, then it will also be a failure for Enzo Maresca which will make his position possibly threatened to be fired too.