The Blues welcome our neighbours from along the Thames to SW6 on Thursday and will be aiming to extend an unbeaten run in all competitions that stands at 12 matches.

Maresca, who has his players training today and on Christmas Day, will be without the services of Lavia – sidelined with a hamstring injury - and long-term absentees Reece James, Wesley Fofana and Benoit Badiashile. Nevertheless, the Chelsea head coach still has several options to call on ahead of a difficult encounter with Marco Silva’s side.

‘Romeo is still recovering,’ our Italian head coach told the gathered media at his pre-match press conference held at Cobham.

‘He’s much, much better and out on the pitch and working but unfortunately, he’s not ready for the next game. It’s the same situation [as before Everton] for the other players.’

Ahead of Fulham making the short trip to Stamford Bridge, Maresca praised the work being done at Craven Cottage by Marco Silva, a man our head coach has a lot of respect for.

The Cottagers are currently sat ninth in the Premier League table and, having been together as a group under Silva for several seasons, Maresca is under no illusions that this local derby will provide a tricky test for his players.

‘They have been fantastic,’ Enzo said of our opponents. ‘They’ve been together for many years now, coming up from the Championship and they know each other very well.

'They have a clear identity and know what they are doing both on and off the ball. They may have a few injury issues to deal with, we are not sure yet, but they have many options to change things up and we will have to see.

'Sometimes they play with a line of four, sometimes they play with five at the back. They can do different things and we will prepare different options and try to prepare for that.

'We know it will be a tough game but I just try to be focused on how we can beat them and how we can be good both on and off the ball. The result is not something we can always control, but we can control the way we want to play.’