The Blues were much improved at Villa Park on Saturday in defeat, and our head coach recognised and praised the confidence with which his players performed. He believes it bodes well.

‘Against Villa the identity was there,’ Maresca stated. ‘The way we played on and off the ball was there. It was very similar to what we are doing during the season. The identity is there, in this moment it’s just a matter of results.

‘I have the feeling that winning one, we can have a good run again and build good momentum again. That’s what the players need at this moment.’

What Maresca acknowledged must be improved, though, is we have dropped 13 points from winning positions since the Boxing Day defeat to Fulham. Our head coach knows a better chance conversion rate is key to improving that record.

He said: ‘Sometimes it’s football, sometimes there is a reason behind it. We are trying to understand it a little bit. The good thing is at least we were in front in those games. Now it’s the other part, when you’re in front trying to protect that.

‘In almost all of these games we analysed it and we had chances to go from 1-0 to 2-0, and we missed them more than once. Even against Villa the other day we had four or five chances to go 2-0 up. When you miss, the game is open and anything can happen. For sure it’s something we need to understand.

‘In the last seven or eight games the huge difference for me has been inside both boxes,’ added Maresca.

‘Apart from Brighton away in the Premier League, all the rest we created chances and almost always scored. We need to be defensively stronger inside the box, and more clinical when we get the chance.’

Without the injured Nicolas Jackson and Marc Guiu, Maresca has had to shuffle his attacking pack. At Villa, he opted to play Pedro Neto in the most advanced position, a decision that paid off as the Portuguese helped get us up the pitch, stretch Villa’s backline, and set up Enzo Fernandez’s goal.

Maresca was asked at his press conference today if that central role might be one Neto continues to fulfil while our recognised strikers remain out.

‘It could be a good option for us with the Nico [Jackson] injury and the Marc Guiu injury,’ he replied. 'We tried with Pedro days before the game and we saw he could do that. It was positive.

'The performance in general was positive. Enzo was fantastic. Reece, after a long time, 90 minutes, he struggled in some moments but it’s normal, overall his performance was very good.’