The Blues welcome Ange Postecoglou’s side to Stamford Bridge on Thursday evening, looking to take a step closer towards securing Champions League football.

While Spurs represent a difficult challenge, Maresca is delighted to have players returning to action following injury issues and confirmed at his pre-match press conference that Palmer, Madueke and Jackson are in contention to feature.

‘Cole is back, he is ok. He is better. Noni is better and Nico is better. They are all good,’ Maresca confirmed to the media at Cobham.

‘It is very good [to have them back]. We have said many times, that this is a game for the players and when they are not there or different reasons, you struggle. It’s exactly what happened to us this season, we had six unbelievable months and then six or seven injuries in a row. Then we lost something. But it will be good to finish [the season] with all of them.’

The Italian also confirmed why Palmer didn’t feature for England during the recent international break after being called up.

He said: ‘The reason why he was not with the international team was the day before Arsenal, he had a muscle problem that was not a big issue but didn’t allow him to play the Arsenal game and join his international team.

'We always say that going with the international team is the best thing for a player, but overall, some days off for Cole and for the rest was a good thing.’

One player who did join up with England was Reece James, with the Chelsea captain coming on as a late substitute in the 2-0 victory over Albania before marking his first Three Lions start in two-and-a-half years with a stunning free-kick in the 3-0 win over Latvia.

Maresca has spoken this season of the need to manage James' game time following injuries in recent years and he was asked if that was still the case by one of the journalists.

‘I still think we need to manage Reece, the reason why is because of the history,' Maresca explained.

'He is a player that you need to be careful with at this moment. We want him fit until the end, so the idea is to manage him to the end [of the season] and then we see in the future if we can go every day, every day. But in this moment, because we need Reece until the end [of the season], we will manage him and do the same until the end.’

You can hear more from Maresca ahead of the London derby with Spurs on our website and app later today.