It was a chilly day in Surrey, but the Blues were busy warming up ahead of Saturday's trip across the capital for a Premier League derby away at Crystal Palace.

Following back-to-back defeats at the end of 2024, Maresca and his players now have their sights firmly set on taking all three points at Selhurst Park to begin the new year on a positive note.

‘The focus is on tomorrow's game,’ Maresca said. ‘It is an important game like the rest, so for now the focus is just on tomorrow.

'Absolutely we don't like to lose games and drop points, but it's not going to affect our journey because we all know and are aware that during the season you are going to lose games.

'We finished the first part of the season, now we are going to start the second part thinking again we are going to win games, we are going to lose games, but the important part is to see how the team is improving game-by-game and things that we can do better.'

Among those involved on the training pitch on Friday was skipper Reece James and midfielder Romeo Lavia, with Maresca revealing the former could be involved against Crystal Palace for the first time following injury, although Saturday will likely come a little too soon for the latter to make his return.

‘Reece is back and he was with us in the squad in the last game. For the last game against Ipswich, he was with us just to be with us in the squad. The plan was not to give him and minutes but tomorrow is different, we can give him minutes. We all know how important Reece is for us so hopefully he can get minutes very soon.

‘Romeo is very close and he has started to work with us. We all consider Romeo a top player, but the most important thing for this type of player is to be fit. There is no doubt when Romeo is fit he is a top player, we need to just understand how we can help him to not get injured.'