The Blues will have enjoyed an 18-day break between our last match against Arsenal and our next contest against North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur by the time Thursday's clash at Stamford Bridge comes around.

While some of the players were away representing their countries, Maresca gave the rest of his squad time to recover before they returned to Cobham, and the majority of our internationals returned in the latter stages of last week.

The Italian described the international break as 'very good' and said it was a time where they could 'focus on some specific work' with those who remained at our training base.

Thursday will be our 30th Premier League match of the season and with nine games to go, the Blues are currently fourth in the table, five points below Nottingham Forest in third and one above fifth-place Manchester City.

Maresca said: ‘I feel good. I know when you are Chelsea head coach you have to win games, no matter if [the team is] young or old. You have to win games.

'Since I joined this club, I have been convinced this squad is good enough to compete and win games and I don’t have any doubts that game after game, month after month, and season after season, we will be better and better and better, and we can close that gap that is between us and one or two more Premier League clubs.’

Maresca enjoyed a great start to life at Chelsea following his arrival from Leicester City, and on December 22 the Blues could have gone top of the Premier League table with victory over Everton.

But a poor spell of form, which has coincided with several players being sidelined, saw us slip down the table. However, our 1-0 defeat to Arsenal last time out did come after a run of four consecutive wins in all competitions following victories over Leicester, Southampton and Copenhagen twice.

Asked to analyse the season so far, Maresca replied:‘In my personal opinion, I can see a team that is improving a lot since day one. It’s very clear what we want to do on and off the ball, [while] for sure in some games we could do better.

'The reason why we had a bad moment in the season is we had six or seven injuries, and this isn’t just for us, other clubs who’ve had six or seven injuries, they drop something.

'So when you have all the players, we showed for six or seven months that with all the squad we were there to compete, then we lost six or seven players and dropped. So now they are coming back and hopefully we can finish in the right way.’

Influential duo Romeo Lavia and Wesley Fofana have only featured twice in the Premier League since early December due to injuries, while first-team regulars Noni Madueke and Nicolas Jackson have also been sidelined of late, along with talented young striker Marc Guiu.

Cole Palmer - who missed the Arsenal game and England's two World Cup qualifiers - plus Madueke and Jackson have all continued their recoveries from injury in the last week and have been pictured training at Cobham, while Fofana and Lavia both featured in the match with the Gunners.

While our results have dipped in recent months, Maresca has continually reiterated that suffering defeats and adversity will benefit his ever-improving squad - the youngest in the Premier League - in the long run.

‘Personally, I am convinced we’re a better team than two months ago,' Maresca began. 'The reason why is that you need to go through this kind of [difficult] moment. With the amount of injuries we had, my duty was to try to find solutions and we tried to move players, change positions, and try to find different solutions.

'We are there [in the top four] – and we have been there all season – so it’s our duty to try to finish there. And as I’ve said, this club belongs in the Champions League so we have to do everything in our hands possible to bring the club there.’

As Maresca and the rest of his squad were working hard at Cobham, several Blues were making their mark on the international stage.

Reece James scored one of the best goals Wembley Stadium has seen in a long time, curling in a 25-yard free-kick during his first England start in two-and-a-half years, and Enzo Fernandez bagged one and expertly created another during Argentina's 4-1 win over rivals Brazil.

Pedro Neto banked another 90 minutes and Marc Cucurella featured for 210 minutes as Spain needed extra-time and penalties in their Nations League double-header with the Netherlands to join Portugal in progressing to the semi-finals.

‘Both [James and Fernandez] scored good goals, and there were good wins for both countries,' Maresca said.

'Even for the rest, even if they didn’t score, I think it was a good international break for most of them. Portugal were good, Spain were good [for example], so overall it was a good international break for our players.’

All eyes are back on the Premier League and another London derby on Thursday, though, as Spurs visit Stamford Bridge after suffering a memorable 4-3 defeat in the reverse fixture back in December.

Ange Postecoglou's side are currently 14th in the Premier League table and 15 points below us but Maresca has no doubts it will be another tough clash with our London rivals.

Maresca said: ‘I think the next one will be a different game compared to the previous game, because every game is different.

'In the first game, we didn’t start in the perfect way as we conceded two goals, but the team was always there in the game and in the end we won. I think this one will be different, it’s a derby so will be difficult, but we have nine games to go and we need to win as many as we can.’