It is a young Blues squad that have propelled us to fourth place in the Premier League table, regularly displaying maturity beyond their years to see out results. Right now, though, they are having to deal with the setback of two unexpected defeats in a row.

Ahead of our trip to Crystal Palace today, Maresca has underlined his belief there is the requisite character and leadership in the dressing room to handle this rare run of results without a victory.

‘We have different profiles that in some ways are leaders,’ he said.

‘We have Moi [Caicedo] who is behaving fantastically in that way. Enzo [Fernandez] is improving a lot, Levi [Colwill] is improving a lot. Reece James is one of them, in his way but he’s also improving a lot. We have Tosin who is doing that kind of job. [Marcus] Bettinelli.

‘Sometimes you have different kinds of leaders,’ noted Maresca.

‘You can have leaders who don’t talk, but when they talk, the rest listen a lot. One who is always vocal is Tosin, for instance. For sure with age, they are going to be better and better.’

Maresca went into greater depth on the progress he has seen Colwill make in that regard since the pair began working together this summer.

‘Even if he doesn’t wear the armband Levi is one of the captains, and in the future he could be one of the captains of this club,’ said Maresca.

‘I can see day by day, since we started pre-season, leadership is something he can improve, and he is improving a lot.’