Southampton boss Russell Martin has said he’s glad to see Enzo Maresca have a good start at Chelsea.

Russell Martin and Enzo Maresca know each other from the Championship, with Enzo Maresca managing Leicester City in the Championship last term.

Martin told reporters this week: “I think Enzo’s done a great job. I’ve got a lot of respect for him and what he did at Leicester last season.

“I’m really pleased for him that a club as big as Chelsea has recognised the work he did in the Championship and given him the credit because they were brilliant.

“I think sometimes the hardest thing for a coach to do is to take another team and make it his own and look very similar in such quick time, which he’s done.

“He has a really talented group of players, for sure, but he’s managed to get them to buy into his way of doing things his way of working and his way of playing.

“They are really starting to click into gear and to get into flow a bit. Against Aston Villa on the weekend, they were excellent, really outstanding.

“They have some top players but it’s how you get them players on the ball and in the areas where you want to. They can do their stuff and they do it regularly.

“We have to be aware of it. We have an understanding of what his team likes to do from last season. Now he’s doing it with really high-level players.

“I think that’s been the toughest challenge at that club over the last couple of years, is to get them to really buy into one thing.

“He seems to have done with players who were bought for different things so it’s big credit to him and it’ll be a tough game for us.”