EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ — After Paris Saint-Germain had thrashed Real Madrid 4-0 with a trademark performance from Luis Enrique's club, the French giants seemed destined for the top of the world.

Instead, just mere days later, it was Chelsea who were celebrating with the opulent FIFA Club World Cup trophy after a 3-0 tail-whipping of their own.

What made the result so truly shocking was not just the scoreline but also the manner in which the game played out. Not only had Chelsea beaten the defending UEFA Champions League winners in epic fashion, but they had done so by beating PSG at their own game.

Led by Luis Enrique, PSG had romped to the top of the European ladder by repeatedly pressing teams out of the game. Instead, at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, it was Chelsea who pressed PSG into oblivion, led by grandmaster Enzo Maresca.

"I’m not an expert, but I do enjoy chess," he said after the match. "I analyzed the game and we could see there was quite a lot of space on their left wing, and we wanted to see if we could explore that flank."

Chelsea specifically targeted the PSG left flank, a bold and unexpected approach from the Blues' boss as it involved beating Nuno Mendes, one of the best defenders in Europe this past season, who has excelled behind hard-working winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and his own high work rate.

Where so many stars before — including Mohamed Salah, Vinicius Jr, and Bukayo Saka — had failed, Cole Palmer shone bright.

"We attacked more down their left because Cole [Palmer] was there, and you guys know he can decide the game like he did," Joao Pedro said after the match. "So, I tried to fix the left side of them, and it happened, and we won."

That simple, eh?

I asked Joao Pedro what Chelsea saw on the PSG left flank that they thought they could exploit.

Turns out, it had nothing to do with PSG at all. “We attacked more down their left because Cole [Palmer] is there, and you guys know he can decide the game like he did.” #ClubWorldCup pic.twitter.com/1nDOSPNE4h

— Kyle Bonn (@the_bonnfire) July 13, 2025

That simple. Enzo Maresca put his faith in Chelsea's superstar forward, and the Blues profited as a result.

Palmer's first goal came on great work by Malo Gusto down the right, but the second was all the Iceman. The England international burst down the right wing and cooked both Vitinha and Lucas Beraldo with pump fakes before finishing with a carbon copy of his first effort.

"These are the games where we expect Cole to appear, because they are big games and big moments, and once again we showed how good he is," Maresca said.

— DAZN Football (@DAZNFootball) July 13, 2025

In reality, it wasn't that simple. The game plan involved taking advantage of spaces vacated by PSG players rotating and exchanging positions.

"There are three midfielders, two of them were the charge for Moi[ses Caicedo], and Vitinha was the charge of Enzo [Fernandez]," Maresca said after the game. "Analyzing them, it felt like a good opportunity to exploit that space, and we used Cole and Malo [Gusto] on that side to create a little bit of an overload to that side. That was the game plan, as I've said many times, I try to use different game plans to put the players in the position to give everything."

It was, in essence, exactly what PSG do. Luis Enrique has won countless games this season using overloads in both wide areas and in the middle of the pitch to exploit space in behind. While Maresca didn't have his Chelsea players rotate and shift as much as PSG do, the general concept was still the same.

"I think that PSG are a team that you either press them high or you'll be in trouble," Maresca said.

"The idea was to go man-to-man. I think PSG are so good that if you give them time you are going to struggle. In my personal opinion, you have to press them very intensely. I think in the first 10 minutes we were able to do it; in our ideal world, we could do that for 90-95 minutes, but we knew because of the weather conditions it was not possible to do for a long time, but we tried to be very aggressive."

It was also Chelsea who pressed PSG out of the match, forcing innumerable turnovers that immediately transitioned into deadly counter-attacks. Vitinha, who was usually the beneficiary of space to exploit after a press-generated turnover, was instead the one to cough it up repeatedly. He was successful with only one of his four ground duels, failed to connect on any of his five crosses, and was repeatedly hounded in possession by elite ball-winner Moises Caicedo.

"The message [to the team] was quite clear," Maresca said in the post-match press conference. "I think we won the game in the first 10 minutes, and the message before the game was 'let them understand we are here to win the game.'"

Chelsea used long balls from Robert Sanchez to great effect as he pinged pass after pass down the right-hand flank. While Sanchez only connected on nine of his 26 long-balls officially, he caused significant trouble with these passes, which Chelsea often won back quickly.

"I usually say that the opponent will give us the solution, Maresca said. "If the opponent does what PSG does, then we have to use the long balls and clearances from the goalkeepers."

That's exactly what Enzo Maresca did. Where so many other teams look to play their own game against PSG and fall victim to their overwhelming approach, Maresca put away his pride and decided to beat PSG at their own game. They pushed high with a robust press and ran a venomous counter-attack, striking three times in the opening 45 minutes despite just 30 percent possession.

"The gaffer gave us the perfect way to break them down and we stuck with that," said defender Levi Colwill after the match. "Cole coming in off the right wing into that pocket there killed them, and there's so many other players that have done things you might not see or who might not get the praise for that helped us win."

For his bold tactical decision, his trust in his superstar, and his do-or-die mentality, Maresca has brought a Club World Cup trophy to Chelsea's case.