There are periods in a season when the depth of a squad is sternly tested. Tonight, at Southampton, Chelsea play the second of seven Premier League fixtures in the final month of 2024. And our two midweeks without domestic duties contain Europa Conference League games, one of them halfway across the world in Kazakhstan. The Blues are mostly certainly busy.

For players such as Tosin Adarabioyo, an opportunity awaits. The defender has already started twice in the league and on five more occasions in Europe following his move down the Fulham Road; with Wesley Fofana now out injured, Tosin will hope for more minutes from the many on offer this month.

‘We’ve got a very talented squad and it’s great we can swap players in and out of the team,’ Tosin tells us.

‘Squad depth is very important. We are going to need everybody in this run of games. You can swap players in or out and you’re getting a high performance with each line-up. It’s great to have that.

‘The squad is amazing, to be honest with you. All the boys are really close together and everyone is supporting each other.’

At 27, Tosin is one of the more senior players at Chelsea. He says he enjoys taking a leadership role within the group, and is looking to ‘support the boys’ as much as he possibly can as we navigate this packed schedule, which continues this evening on the South Coast.

‘This festive period is always the busier time of the season,’ Tosin notes, ‘but we’ve got the squad to make sure we’ve always got a high-quality starting XI and can bring on really strong subs.

‘Hopefully it pays off for us.’

With the way every player has been contributing already this season, you can be confident it will.