Enzo Maresca believes winning Wednesday's Conference League final would confirm Chelsea's status as an important club on the European stage again.

Having sealed Champions League qualification by beating Nottingham Forest 1-0 on the final day of the Premier League season, Chelsea have a chance to cap Maresca's debut campaign with silverware.

The Blues could become the first team in history to win four different major UEFA tournaments, excluding the Super Cup.

Chelsea have won the Cup Winners' Cup (in 1971 and 1998), the Champions League (2012, 2021) and the Europa League (2013, 2019) on two occasions each.

And while they were installed as overwhelming favourites to lift the Conference League trophy at the start of the season, Maresca believes a win would be a significant achievement.

"The message over the last 48 hours has been that we did something important, but if we want to confirm that we are becoming an important club again, we need to show the desire to win the game and the trophy," he told reporters on Tuesday.

"So it's job done in the Premier League, fantastic, and we're happy. But tomorrow is a different game, a final, and we want to win at any cost.

"Every day we have something to prove, no doubt. What we have done is done. Now we have to prove ourselves again tomorrow.

"We have played many games this season in this competition, now we have just one more."

Including Maresca, each of the last seven Chelsea managers to take charge of a major European final have done so in their first season at the club. 

They were Gianluca Vialli (who won the 1997-98 Cup Winners' Cup), Avram Grant (lost 2007-08 Champions League), Roberto Di Matteo (won 2011-12 Champions League), Rafael Benitez (won 2012-13 Europa League), Maurizio Sarri (won 2018-19 Europa League) and Thomas Tuchel (won 2020-21 Champions League).

Maresca's position has been called into question at various stages of the season, and the Italian was asked if he still had something to prove to the Stamford Bridge faithful.

"For sure, for me personally, but the message to the players is exactly the same," he responded. "Every day is a chance to improve, and we want to compete for titles."

Chelsea will have striker Nicolas Jackson back for Wednesday's final, with the Senegal international missing their final two games of the domestic season through suspension, following a red card in a 2-0 defeat at Newcastle United.

Maresca expects Jackson to atone for his sending-off in Wroclaw, saying: "Nico is in debt with his team-mates.

"The reason is that at that moment, Newcastle away was, for us, the most important game and he left his team-mates with 10 players for one hour.

"For sure, he's in debt. For sure, he's a good guy. For sure, he recognised the mistake.

"He apologised to his team-mates. That is very important. I'm sure that he's going to do a very good game for us."