Following another round of international fixtures which saw a number of Chelsea players heavily involved for their countries, Maresca had his whole squad back at Cobham yesterday, as preparations for Saturday’s Premier League fixture against Leicester continued to gather pace.

The international windows provide those not on international duty with a chance to recharge, while for those away from Cobham it is an opportunity to pick up momentum by starring for their national team, as Joao Felix did with Portugal.

‘First of all the international break is good for the ones that don’t go with the international team to recover,’ reflected Maresca.

‘The ones that go with the international team, some of them like Joao did fantastic. But Joao is doing fantastic with us from day one, the only problem for him is us trying to find the balance in the team when we prepare for the game.

‘For us and all the clubs, after the international break there is always a little bit of doubt, because you don’t how they will come back.

'Yesterday was the first session, 48 hours before the game, that we worked with a lot of the players who were with their international team. Some of them came back yesterday morning from South America, so it’s not easy. But we’ll see, we have time still.’

As he alluded to with that reference to South America, nowhere is the impact of the international window more obvious than in our midfield. Of our most regular players in that position, Romeo Lavia will be assessed after not featuring for Belgium following his call-up, while Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez were among the last to return to England, after representing Ecuador and Argentina in the early hours of Wednesday morning UK time.

Maresca was asked about his midfield options and potential alternatives to the trio during his pre-match press conference.

He replied: ‘Renato [Veiga] did it in some games, but he also played 180 minutes with Portugal. In the Carabao Cup, Cesare [Casadei] did very well, but he also played both games with Italy Under-21s.

‘For sure, the ones that are going to play are not going to be 100 per cent, because they are human beings. When you play two games in South America and come back and you have to play again, even if you are 20 or 25 years old, it doesn’t matter, you are tired because you are a human being. But hopefully we can find the right balance.’

Elsewhere in his line-up, the absence of Reece James due to a minor hamstring issue leaves Malo Gusto and Marc Cucurella as the likely candidates to fulfil the full-back roles this weekend based on previous selections.

Maresca has made use of his options in that area by rotating the trio regularly this season, as well as utilising the likes of Veiga and Axel Disasi, while the central pairing of Levi Colwill and Wesley Fofana has remained near ever-present in the Premier League.

‘We change full-back depending on the way we want to play, because we use the full-backs a lot,’ he explained. ‘We don’t move the central defender. Hopefully one day we can start to move the central defender, but in this moment we are moving the full-backs and probably this is the reason why we are changing them.

‘But overall it is not just about the defenders, it is the way we press and we defend all together. I’ve said many times we can attack better and we can defend better, but in the Premier League there are only five clubs who have conceded less than us, so that means probably we are defending quite well.

‘If people think we are not going to concede any goals, that is only on the PlayStation, not real football. We are going to concede goals until the end, for sure, 100 per cent. We decide in which way we are going to risk conceding goals, but in the end you are always going to concede goals.

‘There are just five clubs that have conceded less than us so I don’t know why people are thinking that we are defending bad. For sure, 100 per cent there are many things we can do better defensively, but also offensively, it’s in both situations.’

It is an assertion by our head coach which is supported by the numbers, as only three teams can better our goal difference of +8 in this season’s Premier League, while we have conceded more than one goal in a league game on just a single occasion since September. Maresca will no doubt be hoping his team can demonstrate that fact in a victory away at Leicester tomorrow.