Not long after George had equalised at Craven Cottage, Neto smashed home an injury-time winner that secured us three vital points in our bid to finish in a Champions League place.

That was Neto’s sixth goal of the season in all competitions and his fourth in the league since joining from Wolves last August. He also has accumulated seven assists, four of which have come in the league.

Maresca was asked at his press conference today for his verdict on the Portuguese’s debut season as a Blue.

‘Pedro has helped us a lot, especially when Nico was injured when he played as a nine,’ Maresca replied.

‘We know he is better on our right side than left. Sometimes we use him in the left because we have also Noni and when we decide to go with both, one of them has to be on the left side. Because Pedro in the past played games on the left side, we decide to keep Pedro on the left and Noni on the right, knowing that Pedro is better in the right side.

‘Overall he is doing well with us,’ continued the head coach. ‘He has scored four goals in the Premier League for us. Our wingers, for me, they have to score [or assist] at the end of the season around ten goals for the amount of chances they have every game, one v one chances. So Pedro is doing well, but no doubt he can do better in terms of numbers.

‘For instance, Noni has scored seven goals in the Premier League. That is the number that we require from wingers: between goals and assists around ten. Noni is there, Pedro also is there, so they are doing well.’

Another attacker to have made an impact for Chelsea this season is 19-year-old George. The youngster drew us level against Fulham with his first Premier League goal, backing up the opener he netted away to Legia Warsaw in the Conference League.

‘We are excited with him, but now is the moment you need to manage young players because they can be excited and then too easily go down,’ stressed Maresca today.

‘Tyrique and Josh Acheampong are both from the Academy, and at the beginning of the season they were looking for some different solutions. But they started pre-season with us, and we saw they could be good ones for us.’