The Blues welcome Fabian Hurzeler's side to Stamford Bridge tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon hoping to secure a fourth consecutive victory across all competitions.

Lavia's return will aid that ambition, with Maresca confirming in his pre-match press conference that the Belgian midfielder is available having overcome a hamstring injury last month.

‘Romeo is back available,’ Maresca stated to the gathered media at Cobham.

‘We will see [whether he can start the game or be one of the substitutes]. We have one more session now and then we will decide. The important thing is he’s back and available, which is very good news.

‘Everyone else is okay to face Brighton, the only one [who will be missing] is Reece. With Reece, he is still out and there is no real update on him at the moment.’

At the top end of the pitch, Maresca has a positive selection headache to solve, with Nicolas Jackson and Christopher Nkunku both in good goalscoring form and pushing for starting roles.

Jackson netted a double against West Ham in our last Premier League clash while Nkunku fired us past Barrow in the Carabao Cup with a fine hat-trick.

The Blues head coach says he will select one of the pair to lead the line, but highlighted he has other big decisions to make following several impressive performances in the week.

‘I think it’s good for me to have some doubts,' said Maresca. That means they are doing well and take the chance when we give it to them. This is something important and something we need to continue to do because I think we create the right culture in terms of the team competing and this is important.

‘It’s one of them [Jackson or Nkunku] but I think Pedro (Neto) did well the other day, Misha (Mudryk) did very well the other day, all of the to be honest. Benoit (Badiashile) did well, Axel (Disasi) did well, Renato (Veiga) too.

'Cesare (Casadei) also for me played a fantastic game. It’s important when there is a chance, be it five minutes, ten minutes, half-and-hour or from the start, they give everything, so it’s important.’