After overcoming Panathinaikos in UEFA Conference League action on Thursday evening, the focus for Maresca and his players quickly shifts back to top-flight matters this weekend as we welcome Eddie Howe's side to Stamford Bridge.

A 22-man squad was taken out to Greece – and got the job done in style as we claimed a 4-1 victory – yet there were several absentees from the traveling group.

There was no Wesley Fofana, Romeo Lavia and Cole Palmer, something expected as the trio have not been registered for the league phase due to load management. But Reece James, Malo Gusto, Levi Colwill, Moises Caicedo and Nicolas Jackson were also left at home.

However, Maresca expects to have his full complement of players available for Sunday's clash in west London.

'They are all ok,' the Chelsea head coach confirmed when asked about the fitness of those not in Greece on Thursday evening.

For James, last Sunday's match at Anfield resulted in his first competitive start since December 10 2023 – and he had not featured since pre-season due to a hamstring issue.

Lavia, meanwhile, is on his own journey back to full fitness. The Belgian only featured once in his debut campaign with the Blues and his start at Liverpool was just his second of the campaign.

Importantly, both men played 53 minutes against Liverpool and Maresca was pleased to see them come through unscathed.

He said: 'They were very happy about the minutes they got and the performance. They finished very well, without injury, that is the most important thing. But at the same time, they were not happy because we lost the game.

'As I’ve said, the reason they are not in the squad [in Greece], Romeo, Wes and even Reece, is at this moment they can’t play two games a week. So the idea is to use them once a week.’

On James, he continued: ‘I've spoken with Reece many, many times, he’s the one I speak most with since we started. Before the injury and now again.

'Sometimes, and we talk about Reece because he is our player, clubs have some players who get injury after injury and so we need to find the right solution for him and to try to help him.

'Probably at this moment, the solution could be we use him once a week. We would like to use him every day because he’s a fantastic player but we need to adapt.’