The Blues mounted an impressive second-half fightback at Stamford Bridge yesterday, battling back from a one-goal half-time deficit to triumph 2-1 over West Ham.

Pedro Neto levelled the contest after he turned home the rebound from Enzo Fernandez's initial close-range effort before Cole Palmer's drive toward goal flew in, via a deflection off Hammers defender Aaron Wan-Bissaka, to give us all three points in our latest Premier League fixture.

The victory was hard-earned and Maresca was pleased with the mental fortitude his players showcased across a challenging 90 minutes.

‘I was very happy because I think this game was the toughest game in terms of mentality,' the Blues head coach said. 'In this moment, when teams come here and they just sit back and wait for our mistake, there is no space to attack. You need to be patient.

There was little time for Maresca and his squad to bask in the glow of that win, with attention now turning to Saturday's FA Cup fourth-round tie.

We sealed our passage through to this stage of the competition by defeating Morecambe at Stamford Bridge last month.

The Blues make the relatively short journey to Brighton and Hove Albion on Saturday evening for the first of back-to-back fixtures against the Seagulls at the Amex Stadium.

The players who started in our win over West Ham were undertaking recovery work but there were still several members of the Blues squad for Maresca and his coaching staff to work with on the grass at our Surrey training base.

That group included Malo Gusto, Trevoh Chalobah and Christopher Nkunku, who were all introduced off the substitutes' bench against the Hammers to earn praise from Maresca.

He said: 'Why I said you have to be mentally strong is because my message at half-time was don’t change anything and continue in the same way because they could be so intense for 95 minutes. It is impossible because they were just running behind the ball.

‘Second half, we found a little bit more space, and also the subs from the bench were very good. So I am very happy for that [reason].’